Where are They(Side Story of Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII)
by Tashasaurous
Summary: While Vincent Valentine goes around to stop Deepground, explore on how Cloud and his friends joined in the war and the whereabouts of Rufus ShinRa and the Turks. Warning: Course and bad-mouthed language and possible serious violence.
1. Evacuation on the Double!

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: This story is what I think happened to Cloud, Tifa and the others, and the whereabouts of Rufus and the Turks.**

**Cloud: I'm surprised that they were absent in the game.**

**Reno: If I found out that I'm dead in the next sequel, I'll kill Genesis myself!**

**Author(Tashasaurous): No killing outside anywhere, Reno sweetie. Okay, let's begin, and remember, I don't own the characters or Final Fantasy VII. The rights belong to Square Enix.**

* * *

Chapter one: Evacuation on the Double!

Things seemed perfect for the household of Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart, Marlene Wallence and Denzel, and including Marlene's father Barret. It's been three years since the fated day, and a year since the defeat of Kadaj and his group. While the Stigma was sitll around, it wasn't much of a problem anymore, since WRO and a lot of voulenteered people were all around the world curing them with the Lifestream infused waters from the Church in Midgar.

But something felt...off. Cloud could feel it. For the past three weeks, the cure had to be put on hold due to something going wrong in Midgar, as a bunch of investingators explored the ShinRa building with a camera staff...and they went missing all of the sudden.

He just got home after another long day of making deliveries and found his 'family' in the main room, doing their usual thing; Marlene and Denzel playing, and Tifa cleaning up the counters. The Bar was closed for the day due to a celebration and a promise the adults made to the children. Cloud could only afford half a day off, but the others understood, since that someone had called first thing in the morning wanting a package brought to someone named Freya Laine from Mideel.

For some reason that he couldn't understand, that he somehow recongised her from somewhere, and that she even knew who he was, and even apologuised for what she did. Cloud didn't know what she was talking about, but he decided to worry about that later.

"Cloud!" Denzel and Marlene happily exclaimed as they ran up to him. The three embraced and Cloud let's out a small smile. Even though neither kid were his, he had grown to deeply love them in the past few years.

"Hey, kids." Cloud greeted, playfully ruffling Denzel's hair and gently patted Marlene on the head.

Tifa also went over to greet him with a smile of her own, "Cloud. How was the delivery?"

Cloud nodded towards his childhood friend and replied, "Same as usual," then thought about Freya and admitted, "Though somebody seemed to recgonise me today."

"Who?"

"Her name was Freya, and she even knew my name. She seemed familiar, but I can't think of how or why, though. I delievered a package to her and...well, she said sorry about not being able to help out. Wonder what she meant?" Cloud thought.

Tifa made a soft sound that seemed like a gasp, then looked at the children and said, "Kids, why don't you go up and wait for us. We'll be a little while before we go to Kalm, okay?"

While the kids were wondering what was going on, the kids obeyed and ran up to their rooms, while Cloud and Tifa went over to the bar and sat down on the chairs.

"Did I say something wrong?" Cloud asked.

"You probably don't remember, but back when..." Tifa struggled in forming what she wanted to say, "...Remember when you-know-who burned down you-know-where?"

Cloud grimced and nodded. He was thankful that Tifa didn't mention his worst nightmare's name or their former home where they were both born and grew up in. Not to mention that their friend Vincent had been locked up for a bit over thirty years. "Unfortunately." he replied.

"Well, other than you, Zack and you-know-who coming seven days earlier, there was a Turk there. She was around checking up on things." Tifa explained. "Her name was...Freya."

The spiky-haired man gasped softly. Now he remembered where he'd seen the Freya he met today before. More memories came back in his mind, back when he was in the military. While his head was still a bit fuzzy, one certain figure that he couldn't remember other than Zack came to mind. A young woman with ash-blonde hair in a long pony-tail, brown eyes, with a Shotgun in her arms, hinting that she may be a hunter, and in a Turk uniform.

"Now I remember where I've seen her before, and not just in Nibelhiem." Cloud recalled. "We both teamed at one stage back in Midgar. I can't remember what kind mission that was, but, I think she's the only Turk I've met that isn't...well, like the other four." he smirked as he recalled how stupid Reno and Rude could be, and how serious Tseng and Elena are.

"I can't really say that Freya and I were close friends, but she was a nice person. Similiar to Reno, but not that much." Tifa giggled, "Now that I think of it, I only hate ShinRa is because of Hojo, the old President, Scarlet, Hedeigger, and the military."

"I used to hate Rufus, but, to tell the truth, I guess we can't really blame him for Sephiroth going all crazy, or the Turks, and especially not Reeve, and diffenately not Vincent." Cloud agreed.

Tifa nodded, then suggested, "You should find Freya and tell her that she's forgiven. Let her know that it's not her fault, and that, maybe we can hang out sometime."

Cloud liked the idea. Besides, other than Tifa, Zack and Freya were Cloud's two closest friends before meeting Barret, Marlene, Aerith, Nanaki, Yuffie, Vincent, Cid, Reeve, and Denzel. "Maybe I should." he finally said.

Then the TV behind them made the sound of World news appearing, and they heard a male announcer say, "_Three weeks ago, our crew left for Midgar._"

"_However, the group's whereabouts' still remain unknown. What really happened down there_?" the female announcer added, causing both Cloud and Tifa to turn and watch the news, curious themselves.

"_Tonight, for the first time, we give you the final transmission that was received before all contact was lost_." The male announcer concluded. The anchorman's faces were soon covered by a video that expanded from the corner of the screen which showed a young broadcaster and several men in heavy work uniforms at the front of a large building.

"_For the past three years, this door has remained sealed_," she said. "_However, those seals are about to be broken. There are no records of this place located deep within the Shinra Building, another of the companies' secret's revealed recently. According to an investigator's reports, there is evidence that people were once transported here_."

"Shinra's secrets..." Cloud thought, frowning. "How many did that stupid company hide?"

Tifa shuddered a little, "I really don't want to know."

"_If rumors of the Shinra Company conducting human experiments are true, then this may be where those nefarious deeds were carried out. To bring you this exclusive footage, Channel Seven news has teamed up with volunteer Organization...wait, I think I see something now..._"

Cloud mentally groaned, and said, "It wouldn't surprise me that Rufus knew something about this."

"Call me crazy, but I don't think that's the case." Tifa thought.

The blonde haired man stared at her as if she was totally crazy. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Before Tifa could answer, the phone on the wall began to ring, catching their attention. Cloud got up to get it while Tifa turned the volume down.

"Hello?" Cloud answered.

"**Cloud. It's me, Reeve. Listen, you need to get yourself, Tifa and the children out of Edge, now.**" it was Reeve, and he sounded stressed and on edge.

"Is something wrong?" Cloud asked, before glancing briefly at the televison, and his eyes widened as the breaking news poofed up and the footage on the TV changed to a low quality video of some of these people in uniforms, with their weapons raised high.

"**Kalm is attacked. I'm on my there with WRO as we speak. Vincent is there, and well, I'll tell you later. Right now, Edge could be in danger due to DeepGround**." Reeve explained.

"DeepGround?" Cloud wondered. Then he understood and replied, "Alright, we'll evacuate right away." then he hung up.

He turned to Tifa who immediately understood the situation and said, "I'll get the kids." already on her way to the children's bedroom. Cloud in the meantime, pulled out his PHS and dialed the number he really didn't want to ring, but knew he had no choice.

It was about damn time that ShinRa would clean up their mess.

* * *

"Somehow I don't think you'll be safe here, boss." Reno spoke as he stood in the living room with Rude, Tseng, Elena and President Rufus Shinra at the Healen Lodge. They just witnessed the Breaking News about what happened.

"True, but at the same time, I cannot allow myself to stand by and let these strange men plot something that could very well mean the end of the world." Rufus pointed out.

"We'll do what we can to start up evacuation." Tseng said calmly.

Just then, Reno's PHS buzzed, and he pulled it out, flipped it open and answered whoever was calling him, "Yo?"

"**Reno, I need to speak with Rufus. It's about those guys that are attacking Kalm**_**.**_" it was Cloud, and he sounded pissed.

The red-spiky haired man rolled his eyes and grumbled, "What? Don't I even get a, 'Hey, how'ya doin.' or, 'Hi'? I have no idea what the hell these blue-suited guys are, just so you know."

He heard Cloud groan and said, "**Cut the crap and just put Rufus on. I don't have much time since Edge is being evacuated, since you're being lazy and all.**"

"Alright, listen you spikey-haired chocobo-head!" Reno shouted, getting irritated, "All you had to do was ask nicely! I asked for you nicely a year ago, didn't I?"

"Reno, just hand over the phone." Rufus sighed in annoyance, starting to get a headache already. The other three would probably agree.

"**Reno...Off!**" Cloud hissed.

Reno sighed and replied, "Tch, fine, whatever. He's asking for the phone anyway." then handed the PHS to Rufus and said, "It's for you."

"Obviously." Rufus sighed, before placing the phone to his ear, answering, "Cloud, I gather that you believe that I have something to do with this new threat, am I right?"

"**What do you think?**" Cloud asked sarcastically.

"I'll take that as a yes." Rufus sighed, "And considering that Reeve is your ally, he warned you about this and that you and your family are being evacuated." that was not a question.

"**I know you. Smart-ass as always. Anyway, Reeve also told me about the group, which are named Deepground, and I know that you have something to do with that.**" Cloud answered.

This was something Rufus did not expect. "Deepground?" he frowned deeply about this. "What else did Reeve tell you?"

"**Don't lie to me, Rufus.**" Cloud warned, "**Think about the sudden disappearence that happened in Midgar three weeks ago. Not to mention the disappearence of people in Junon. You something about Deepground and I want an answer.**"

"I'm afraid I don't know anything about Deepground, and yes, I am aware about the incidents in Midgar and Junon recently." Rufus answered, then thought about a connection, and replied, "However, now that you mention this, I'm beginning to believe that this Deepground troops have something to do with this."

"**Pah. Like you don't actually know about all of those secrets.**" Cloud mumbled.

The young Shinra sighed again, "You know as well as I do, Cloud. I was never close to my father, even for his death by the hands of Sephiroth three years ago, and, gladly, I would've killed the old man myself."

"You nearly did." Reno whispered to himself as he and his co-workers listened. Though the Turks were now supicious about 'Deepground' themselves. None of them, not even Tseng, had ever heard that kind of thing before either.

There was a pause, before Rufus heard Cloud sigh and then the man on the other side said, "**We need to talk to Reeve about this, somewhere where Deepground won't find us**_**.**_"

"After the evacuation." Rufus agreed, nodding to his suboittates who nodded, knowing that silent order to get on with it.

"**Fine. I think Kalm should be okay to talk since WRO is taking care of things**." Cloud decided.

"We'll meet you there." Rufus replied, then hung up and ordered his Turks, "Evacuate Edge without getting captured, then we are to meet Cloud Strife in Kalm once things have settled down a little."

"Are you sure that Kalm is alright?" Rude asked.

"With WRO, it will be." Rufus nodded, "And I have a supicious feeling that a certain Ex-Turk would be aiding them."

Reno quirked an eyebrow, then remembered something, "Who? Vincent?" having remembered that about a month ago when he visited Kalm, he met up with Vincent who had moved there recently.

"Shouldn't we warn the other former Turks, sir?" Elena pipped up.

A short pause, before Tseng looked at Rufus who nodded, then the Director of the Turks nodded, "Affirmative. Let's go."

The others nodded, and made their way outside to the helicopters to begin the new mission.

* * *

As soon as Cloud finished the phone call, he, Tifa and the kids were out the door immediately just as people around them were in a major panic, just like in Kalm.

Suddenly they heard a young girl screaming, and when they turned to look, to their shock and horror, were a couple of strange dog-mutan monsters in the same uniforms of Deepground chasing her. The girl had a toy Moogle in her arms.

"Katie!" Cloud, Tifa, Marlene and Denzel cried out. Immediately, Cloud took out his Fusion swords, and just as the monsters closed in on Katie, Cloud swung and slashed at the enemies, killing then instantly. Katie looked up, then wrapped her arms around Cloud's waist and began to cry.

"Katie, are you alright?" Cloud asked, holding the trumatized child who shook her head. He then sighed and said, "C'mon, it's not safe here."

They met up with Tifa and the other two kids, then made their way to Cloud's bike-Fenrir, without being seen by other incoming Deepground soldiers.

"How are we gonna all fit on Fenrir?" Denzel asked worriedly.

Before any of them could answer, a large van drove up and stopped before them, and to the group's surprise, were a group of people wearing Turk uniforms. A man with glasses and a scar, another was another young man with spiky red-hair, like Reno's, but different, another was a young woman with urban curly hair with matching eyes and a Shuriken, another young woman, a bit older, looking almost like an bit older identical version of Elena, a tall man with orange hair and sunglasses, and finally, Freya, back in her Turk uniform, shotgun at ready.

"This way, quick!" Freya cried out.

Not that Cloud trusted the Turks, he just never saw this many before. Still, he'd rather be with the Turks right now than being killed or getting his family killed by Deepground.

While Tifa loaded herself and the children into the van, Cloud drove Fenrir into the back of the van which closed up and as the Turks drove away as many Deepground soldiers as they could, they too re-entered the van, and took off immediately.

The red-haired Turk pulled out his PHS and dialed a number before talking to whoever he was calling, "Rafe, what's your status?"

"**# %^! There's too many of them! Can't even get the citizens away for long!**" the man named Rafe on the other end cursed loudly, causing the redhead to flinch the phone away briefly at the loud screeching noise.

"Dude, just calm the hell down and just get yourself and the others and everyone in the city outta here!" He quickly said.

"**At this rate, these guys are like killing machines, like Scarlet's robots or-$#&amp;%! Retreating on the double!**" Rafe then hung up, and the redhead grumbled.

The oranged haired Turk then asked, "That bad, huh, Rod?"

Rod-the redhead-, just glared up at him and muttered, "Shut up, Legend."

In the meantime, Freya approached Cloud, Tifa and the children, asking, "Are you guys okay?" bending down to the upset three kids' level, checking on them.

"Just a bit shaken." Tifa replied, "I didn't expect to see you again, Freya."

Freya shrugged at the martial artist, "I was around town 'cause I felt like it, and it turns out to be a good thing too."

"So, you guys are the Turks too? Other than Freya, I haven't seen any of you before." Cloud muttered as he looked at the other Turks.

"Former Turks, actually." The scarred-faced Turk corrected, "We went into Exile almost four years ago."

"Exile?" Cloud repeated in shock.

Rod smirked and replied, "Blame that on Rufus' old man. He, Scarlet and Hedeigger wanted us dead, even though we saved the world before Sephiroth showed up."

"You guys saved the world before Sephiroth came back?" Tifa asked, puzzled.

"Long story." Freya sheepishly said, then added, "Don't worry, we're on your side."

"We may not be Turks anymore, but you can't really leave the organization, because once you're in, you're a Turk even if you quit or retire." The Urban woman added, then turned her attention to Cloud and said, "I'm relieved that you came out of the Mako Poisoning, Cloud."

Cloud and Tifa blinked in surprise.

"You know about me?" Cloud asked.

"Uh, Cissnei? Now's not the time." Legend worriedly warned.

Then, a PHS rang and the scarred-faced Turk pulled out his PHS and answered, "This is Haruto."

"**It's me, Veld. I want all of you to meet me in Kalm. It seems that the situation is a lot more troubling than expected. Oh, and five familiar faces are waiting here as well. Make sure all of you get here safely**_**.**_" However this Veld was, he immediately hung up as soon as he called.

"Was that the ol' man?" Legend asked, having his arms crossed to his chest.

"Indeed. He wants us to meet him in Kalm." Haruto replied.

"Actually, we need to get to Kalm too." Cloud spoke up, having overheard the conversation. Then he looked at the former Turks and asked, "Do any of you know about Deepground?"

"Deepground?" The blonde-haired female Turk asked.

Rod shrugged, "Can't say we have."

"Why am I getting the gut feeling that it's related to Hojo's sick experiment thing?" Legend grumbled. Everyone looked at him with both glares and question looks. He shrugged cluelessly at them, "What?"

Cloud sighed. 'Whoever Deepground is...maybe Hojo had something to do with it.'

**First chapter up! Next one is something interesting. Look out for future chapters, and don't forget to review.**


	2. The Dark Family Secrets

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: Here's chapter two!**

**Reno: Are ya gonna say that with every story in every chapter, yo?**

**Tashasaurous: What? I can't help it. Besides, I'm new here. Now Cloud, if you please.**

**Cloud: Tashasaurous does not own anything here. It rightfully belongs to Square Enix.**

**Reno: So enjoy the story with your imagination, yo.**

**Tashasarous: Thanks you guys! (Hugs Cloud and gives a passionate kiss to Reno who blushes right red)**

**Reno:...She really likes me. (passes out)**

Chapter Two: The Dark Family Secret.

In Kalm, everything was almost destroyed and burned down. Deepground was thankfully driven off thanks to WRO and the aid of Vincent Valentine who was around at the time. Actually, Vincent did most of the work on his own.

Rufus on the other hand, was far from pleased. He was utterly furious with Deepground, and after what Cloud told him earlier, the young President had a supicious feeling that his late father may had something to do with it.

He wasn't the only one who was angry. Reno looked utterly pissed off as he checked around the area, before furiously kick dust off the ground

"Just great!" Reno cursed, "Not only those stupid $%&amp;^ing remnants had to go and attack and turn into Sephiroth before Cloud killed him again last year, and having to cope with the Stigma for the past two years after Meteor, now everybody has to deal with all this $%^ing crap!"

"Calm down, Reno." Tseng sighed.

Reno ran his left hand into his messed up hair and tried to take a deep breath, then said, "How the hell can I? We're trying to redeem ourselves for what's happened for the past like, what, 45 years or something? And with this going on, it's makin' me feel even worse, and I'm sure that you guys can agree me with this one."

Rude remained silent, Elena shifted uncomfortablely, Tseng sighed again and even Rufus looked a bit worse. Indeed they all agreed with Reno on this one.

"There are things that even I don't know." a familiar voice spoke up behind Reno who immediately turned around as soon as the voice spoke, and he and the others were stunned to see who it was. A man well into his fifties, aging brown-gray hair with a thin goatee, and a scar on the left side of his face, and into his Turk uniform.

"Veld, sir!" Tseng said, surprised. Rude's eyes behind his shades widened in shock. Reno was speechless, and he had his mouth gapped open like a gobba-fish, unable to know what to say. Elena was quite surprised herself, and Rufus blinked in surprise.

Veld nodded to all of them, before glancing at the redhead and said, "Reno, close your mouth. You look like a gobba-fish." he formed a tiny teasing smirk, to which, for the first time, Tseng tried not to laugh, Rude looked away while trying not to laugh either. Rufus smirked, and Elena giggled.

Reno, feeling embarrassed, cleared his throat and closed his mouth, sheepish. "Sorry. Didn't expect to see you again here." he admitted.

Once the embarrassing moment was cleared up, Rufus looked at the former Director of the Turks and questioned, "Veld, what brings you here?"

"It's a concern that Reeve told me earlier, Mr. President." Veld said, "I'll explain once the other Turks have arrived."

Reno's eyes widened as he asked, "You mean everyone's here too!?"

"Yes." Veld nodded. He knew how much the redhead had missed the rest of the former Turks.

Elena then spoke up, "Sir, just to let you know, Cloud will be arriving here too."

The older man seemed thoughtful about this, and muttered, "I see." then he questioned, "Have you heard about Vincent?"

"Yeah, but you just missed him." Reno answered, "I think he left with Reeve about three hours ago. Vincent actually did some of the work before WRO came."

Veld's expression seemed grim, since he was once partnered with Vincent when both of them were young and members of the Turks. Come to think of it, Veld knew that Vincent was his close friend.

"Is something the matter, sir?" Tseng asked.

"Like I said, I'll explain once everyone gets here." Veld replied.

As soon as he said this, a large Van comes into view and then it stops near them. The back opened up, and the group from Edge came out, including Cloud, Tifa, Marlene, Denzel and Katie. From the drivers seat, a young blonde-curly haired(?) young man in a Turk uniform climbed out and joined the others. Cloud and his 'family' looked around the area and were horrified at such much damange.

They then turned their attention to Rufus and the Turks, and Cloud approuched them first.

"Good to see that you made it out alright, Cloud." Rufus spoke.

"Thanks to these guys." Cloud sighed, not really looking forward to the meeting.

In the meantime, Elena was greeting the other blonde-haired female Turk as the two embraced. Now that Tifa and the kids looked, they were surprised at the strong resemblence. Marlene, being curious, went up to them and asked Elena, "Miss Elena, do you know miss Rosalind?"

The youngest Turk looked at the young child with a smile and replied, "Marlene, just call me Elena. And yes, I know Rosalind. She's my older sister."

Cloud, Tifa and Denzel overheard this and were surprised, while everyone else, Reno especially, just smiled or smirked. "I didn't know that you and Rosalind were sisters, Elena." Tifa admitted.

"They may be sisters, but they're both totally different." Reno smirked.

"Be quiet, Reno." Rosalind commanded, slightly annoyed, while being cautious of the young children around.

"What?" Reno shrugged teasingly.

Elena sighed and glared at him, whispering, "Reno, shut up."

"The others?" Veld questioned to the other former Turks.

"Headin' over here as we speak, boss." Rod reported, "Those blue-glowing suited guys are just as worse as those Ravens years ago."

"Please don't remind me." Reno grumbled, now shuddering at more bad memories, "I have enough nightmares as it is."

Even Rufus shuddered a little, "Those memories and everything's that has been happening for many years is enough to even give me nightmares."

"Unfortunately," Veld sighed, while forming an apologetic look towards the three young children, "The nightmare is about to get worse." He looks at all of them, adding, "And not just Deepground...Vincent is in grave danger himself."

Everyone softly gasped at this.

"Where's the best place to talk while avoiding Deepground?" Cloud asked.

Half an hour later, everyone gathered in the safe house Veld showed them, and while Tifa, Rosalind and Elena were tendering to the children, everyone else gathered around for a meeting.

"Veld, who are these Deepground soldiers?" Rufus asked.

"From what Reeve has gathered, and from what I understand, they are the shadow of the Company, under your father's name, Mr. President." Veld said.

"Something even I wasn't informed." Rufus grunted, his anger growing, but he did his best to keep it under control.

"You mean you really didn't know about this either?" Cloud asked to the young President.

Reno's rolled his eyes and pointed out, "If he did, don't ya think we've known by now?"

"He's right, Cloud." Tseng agreed, "Even us Turks were never informed to every secret the former President had."

"So what've happened if you guys really did?" Cloud inquired.

The Turks were silent on this, and for once, Cloud noticed that all of them looked very uncomfortable, and...scared even. Though he hated to admit it, he was scared too, not just for himself, but for his friends, his family, and everyone in the world.

"Probably end up the same fate like those who Proffessor Creep-Show experimented on. He ain't afraid to touch even the toughest and scariest looking guys." Reno eventually braved to venture.

"I guess the only thing he was scared of was himself getting killed and not getting what he wants." Cloud said sarcastically.

Freya nodded in agreement, "No doubt about that. In fact, from what I heard, even Sephiroth hated him and wanted to actually leave him to die."

"If it weren't for my father, that I would've agreed with before things got worse." Rufus found himself admitting.

Veld nodded, "The only ones who knows about Deepground truthly are the former President himself, Hojo especially, Scarlet and Heidegger."

"What about Reeve?" Cloud asked.

"He said that he told the information was on a need to know basis, and as the head of the uban department, you can guess that he wasn't on the list." Veld said.

"Why would they hide something like this and leave it to the last minute?" Freya asked, just as furious as everyone else was, and really, who can blame her?

"Since the former President was constructing Deepground, his ultimate goal was to create an army of superhuman warriors-not once letting morality interfere." Veld explained.

"Superhuman warriors..." Cloud thought, "You mean like Sephiroth?" fighting down the shudder that went inside him.

Veld nodded, "Precisely."

"Hearing about what my father was actually doing, even without informing me...it is utterly..." Rufus grunted.

"Disgusting!" Freya said without hesitation.

"Sickening." Reno added.

"Madness." Rude added.

"Cruel." Haruto added.

"Horrible." Cissnei added.

"A nightmare." Cloud himself added.

"What the hell was the old President thinking!?" Rod asked, disgusted.

"Disgrace." Rufus finally got a chance to say what he wanted to say, before adding, "And what the rest of you mentioned too. Stupid old man, couldn't even have the brains to come up with an escape route."

This was something new to Cloud, as he asked, "Why's that?"

Rufus shrugged, "Simple. He foolishly believed that ShinRa would never have enemies. As for he, I knew that enemies would come, even as a child." he then admitted, "Come to think of, I was the one who thought of the escape route and pointed it out to him, and I was five years old at the time."

"That's newsflash to me." Cloud thought, a bit annoyed with himself since he was actually a bit impressed.

"So, what else does Deepground hold? An Ice cream van?" Reno asked sarcastically, while wanting to get back on the current situation.

"From what I heard from Reeve, there is a special elite group within Deepground, known as the Tsviets, and so far, I know only three members of the group; Nero the Stable, Rosso the Crimson, and...Azul the Cerulean." Veld explained.

"Azul!?" Reno, Rude and Freya all cried out in horrified unison.

"Let me guess, you three know this Azul guy, right?" Cloud asked after seeing their reactions.

Reno nodded, "Not only we know him, at one stage, us Turks were ordered to find suitable cadidates for SOLDIER. Azul was one of them, and man, he's freakin' huge that he makes Rude small." he said this while pointing at his tall partner who nodded.

"Though back then, even Azul wasn't strong enough for Rude's strength." Freya admitted, "At that time, the mini-giant-Azul wanted to fight me to the death."

"As soon as we brought Azul to ShinRa, that was last we ever heard of him." Rude stated.

"It turns out that muscle wasn't the real way of enterin' SOLDIER." Reno recalled, "So the guy was tall strength and no show, but at the same time, I thought that they locked him up since he was too dangerous to roam around freely."

He then shuddered and said, "To think that he's in Deepground and after what Hojo had been doing makes me feel sick."

"And the information was kept secret. That is why there is very little information about them or what they're planning to do. Though, with them kidnapping people who are not infected with Geostigma makes me utterly worried." Veld continued.

"What about those who still have the Stigma?" Reno asked.

"They murder them without hesitation." Veld said.

Now Cloud was certain that he saw the Turks and the former Turks turn pale white. Even Rufus looked twice as sick as he had when he was infected with the Stigma before being cured. Cloud should understand that, though, since he was also positive that he was just as pale as he was before he was cured from his own Stigma.

"How did Reeve find this information?" Cloud asked.

"It was discovered only recently when WRO came across Scarlet's old files." Veld answered.

"Go figure. Never liked that bitch in the first place." Rod grumbled.

Veld ignored Rod's comment, and turned to Tseng, inquiring, "Tseng. Have you heard of the mass disappearance that occurred recently in Junon?"

"Reeve gave us the full report about the disappearence." Tseng confirmed.

"I remember that about 20 or 30 people disappeared." Cloud remembered.

Reno shook his head and pointed out, "That's what the reports want you to believe. The actual number that day was that 1200 people went 'poof' and never seen again."

When Cloud looked at him with an annoyed dumbfounded expression, Rude answered, "In other words, it was determined internally that if the truth was leaked, they wouldn't be able to contain the inevitable panic. 1200 people simply vanished without a single trace."

"I also recall Reeve mentioning that WRO conducted a private investigation but came up empty-handed. Except for rumors." Tseng added, before turning to Cloud and questioned, "Cloud, have you noticed anything unusual in Edge lately?"

As a matter of fact, he did. Cloud nodded, "Yeah. Everynight for the past three weeks, everyone could hear screams coming from Midgar. It's almost like...they're crying." he also remembered the time when he and all of his friends had heard the Planet itself crying when Sephiroth summoned Meteor, and that he remembered that Aerith and Zack both helped him out in spirit a year ago. Would Aerith know what's going on?

"That'd be enough to give even me nightmares." Legend admitted.

"Come to think it," Reno spoke up again, "After the disappearences in Junon, for a few weeks, I've been having nightmares that was even keeping me on edge."

"What do you mean?" Cissnei asked.

"Dunno. All I know is, everynight, I keep seeing..." Reno began, "...This giant monster underwater of some sorts. Everytime I look inside my dreams, it's this huge thing, it's eyes were glowing of strong mako, and it kinda looked like those WEAPON things from three years ago."

"Are you kidding?" Freya gasped, "I had the same dream at the same time!"

Even Cloud was surprised, "I did too. Except that, in my nightmares, the world is...ending, and this WEAPON seemed to be...gathering up the Lifestream and then go off into the sea of seas, leaving the world empty and crumbling." he admitted.

"Do you think it's a connection?" Rufus questioned, "Because I was having the same visions myself."

"It's possible that since Freya was in Mako poisoning for three years, and that you and Cloud were healed from your Stigmas, there might be a connection. It's just my theory." Veld thought.

Reno frowned in confusion, "What the hell does that have to do with me? I never had Mako Poisoning or the Stigma, and the closest I got to the Lifestream is when it smashed Meteor into pieces."

"You were closer to it than I was." Rude pointed out, "Though I had the same nightmares too."

"I did as well, and in my case, it's possible because Aerith has saved my life back in the Temple of the Ancients." Tseng remembered.

Just then, Elena came running in, crying out, "Everyone! There's something happening!"

The others followed Elena into the living room and Tifa had Marlene, Denzel and Katie look away and cover their ears. When everyone else turned to the TV which was suddenly turned on, they understood why.

There was a transmission, and on the screen, is a is sitting in a throne. As he speaks the camera shows him from different angles, and his voice was very deep and evil-like.

"_At last. The time has come to cleanse this world._" He said.

"Who the hell is that?" Reno asked, only to be shushed, as he and everyone else continued to listen and watch.

"_The pure will be "spared" for the cause, while the tainted will be hunted down and exterminated. They shall be slashed, strangled, and slaughtered. Beaten stabbed, and crushed. Garroted and impaled._" the man on the screen continued, "_Shot and executed without mercy. The time has come to cleanse this world._" then he laughed rather villainously, then the transmission cuts off. Everyone looked horrified and paled.

Everyone was silent for a good ten minutes and for good reason. They all glanced at each other worriedly. Just then there was this shrieking noise and it scared the hell out of everyone.

"Oh for crying out loud." Cloud grumbled as he realised that the sound was far from unfamiliar and pulled out his PHS since the noise was coming from the phone. He answered, "Cloud speaking."

"_**Hey, Spiky! Where the hell are ya!?**_" It was Barret.

Cloud had to briefly hold the phone away until his friend stopped screaming, before answering, "I'm in Kalm with Tifa and the kids, and don't worry, we're alright. And Barret, please don't shouting everytime we're on the phone."

'Barret?' Freya thought, surprised.

Marlene, hearing her father's name, went up to Cloud who noticed and nodded, then said to Barret, "Marlene wants to talk to you."

"_**She better be alright, otherwise-**_"

"-I'm dead, I know that." Cloud interrupted, before handing over the PHS to Marlene who held it towards her ear.

"Daddy?" Marlene asked.

"_**Marlene, are you alright?**_" Barret asked, his father instinct kicking in already.

While the little girl was speaking to her father on the phone as Tifa went up and held her away from the other adults for the time being and back towards the other two kids, Freya sighed. She should've known that Barret's best friend had a daughter. She would ask later.

"You said that Vincent was in trouble." Cloud went back to the main conversation and asked to Veld, "Why is that?"

"I don't know." Veld shook his head, "All I know is, he's the prime target for Deepground."

"What for?" Reno asked, "No offence, boss, but I don't like Vincent that much."

"I'm not surprised." Veld sighed. "In the meantime, Cloud, the children are not safe here."

Freya then had an idea, and suggested, "There hasn't been any incidents since meteor in Mideel which is rebuilt, and Deepground doesn't know anything about that place. The kids can go there for a time being. My parents can look after them."

"Thanks Freya, but I think Cosmo Canyon is a better optain." Cloud said, "I know that Elyma went there last week for a couple of weeks away."

Even Freya knew about Cosmo Canyon and even knew about Nanaki.

It seemed that the situation was about to get from bad to worse, especially for Cloud and Vincent.

**Cloud: Uh...(seeing Tashasaurous performing CPR on the unconscious Reno) while she's trying to wake Reno up, I guess I have to fill out the blank. Don't forget to review and look out for more chapters.**

**Tashsaurous: (having woke Reno up and speaks to Cloud) Thanks, Cloud!**

**Reno:...Ugh...Am I dreaming?**

**Tashasaurous: Please keep me posted people!**


	3. Azul's Wrath and Reeve

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: Welcome to Chapter three! The action begins to heat up and so does the suspence.**

**Reno: I have one question; Are we gonna die?**

**Tashasaurous: Of course not. The only ones that are gonna die are DeepGround and the Tviests.**

**Cloud: I hope that's true.**

**Tashasaurous: Relax, now, if you both please?**

**Reno: Tashasaurous doesn't own Final Fantasy VII or it's characters.**

**Cloud: All rights belong to Square Enix.**

* * *

Chapter Three: Azul's Wrath and Reeve.

While Cissnei and Haruto took Tifa, Marlene, Denzel and Katie to Cosmo Canyon, Cloud went with Reno, Rude, Freya and Rod towards the WRO headquarters to speak with Reeve about the situation, while Tseng and Elena escourted Rufus for safe keeping, and the remaining Turks and Veld scattered all over for further investigations.

Reno and Rude were in the front driving, while Cloud was in the back of the van with Freya and Rod.

"So why did you find Azul for SOLDIER?" Cloud couldn't help but ask.

The female hunter explained, "Due to the first AVALANCHE and another problem with the mass desertion in SOLDIER years ago, SOLDIER lacked in manpower, that's why we were ordered to find suitable candidates."

It made sense, Cloud thought. He couldn't remember the mass desertion part, but had a vague idea that AVALANCHE was an organization before Barret adopted the name for the team they were both in three years ago.

He then remembered what Tifa suggested to him earlier before DeepGround attacked, and decided that now was the best time to tell Freya.

"Listen, Freya-" Cloud began, but was cut off when suddenly he and the others heard Reno scream out, "WHAT THE HELL!?" and the next thing they knew, the van was violently shaking and was spinning out of control, as Reno tried to put the brakes on, but ended up accidently turning the steering wheel to the side in fear, Cloud, Freya and Rod thrown around a bit in the back.

The van then skid to a stop, and in the front, Reno and Rude stared out what was in front of them, their eyes widened in sheer horror.

A half-giant man was on the dry ground, tall and very muscled, pointy ears and nose, wearing a sleeveless suit with glowing blue mako, eyes glowing un-naturally bright yellow, and blue hair that crawled down on his back, making him resemble more like a monster than a human.

"Guys! What's going on?" Rod called out from the back.

Reno's breathing was shaking, his hands shivering in fear. He could hardly move.

"Azul..." Reno whispered, unable to believe that the man he and the other Turks met briefly eight years ago had now become a _huge freakin' monster!_ He had admit it that he was scared of him before, now Reno was completely terrified.

Luckly this van had been inquiped as a two-driver vehcile, just like helicopters and aircrats, becaue Rude had pushed the co-driver mode and took over the driving, then put the gears in reverse and drove away, leaving Reno looking at his partner, finally tearing his eyes away from Azul who unknown the them laughed, before starting to give chase.

Reno looked back again and muttered, "He's after us!"

"Hold on!" Rude shouted, then turned the steering wheel and put the van into forward gear, and slammed his foot on the peddle and drove away as fast as the van could allow him. Reno yelped out, "Whoa!" when the van was turned again and had to hold on despite the seatbelt.

In the back, Cloud, Freya and Rod were thrown a bit again before they were now lying on the floor, feeling the van picking up speed.

"What the hell is going on?" Freya screamed out to her two former seniors.

"It's Azul!" Reno called to them, having calmed down a little to speak again, "He's chasin' us, and he sure as hell ain't human anymore!"

"Azul?" Rod asked in shock, "What the f*** is he doing out here!?"

Cloud, not willing to go down without a fight, immediatley jumped up and kicked the back doors open, and true to Reno's words, Azul was still chasing them, and despite the speed Rude was going with the van, Azul was catching up!

Freya screamed while Rod yelled out, "HOLY S***!" while Cloud then jumped onto Fenrir, placed his driver-googles on and puts his motorbike into gear. "Guys, move!" he yelled at the two former Turks who turned, and then jumped out of the way as Cloud then drove out of the van and towards Azul who stopped in confusion, seeing someone heading towards him.

"CLOUD, NO!" Freya cried out.

"What are you, feckin' crazy!?" Rod shouted out.

Reno looked on the side mirror and gasped in horror as he realised what was going on. He turned to his partner and shouted, "Rude, stop! Cloud's trying to fight Azul!"

Rude nodded, and tried to slam the brakes, but to his dismay, he couldn't stop. No matter how many times he tried, the brakes didn't obey him.

"S***!" Rude cursed, "The brakes are broken!"

"WHAT!?" Reno cried out.

Meanwhile, Cloud then armed himself with his Fusion Swords and skillfully dodged Azul's powerful punch and clashed against the giant man who was just as dangerous as the Turks said he was.

"You think you can defeat me, little man?" Azul taunted.

Cloud then had an idea and he leaped into the air and without Azul realising, he slashed him on the back and knocked him on the head, before Cloud leaped back onto his bike and sped away towards the van which was now out of control.

Falling to his knees, Azul rubbed his now sore head, and his back was bleeding a little, but he was laughing. "So that's the famous Cloud Strife. I admit that he is more skilled than I thought. This made a perfect distraction to get to the wielder of the Protomateria." he said to himself.

* * *

The Turks, meanwhile, tried everything to stop the van, but it was no use. The brakes must've hit a rock during the panic, and now they were in a new panic.

Reno looked ahead and cried out, "We're headin' straight for a cliff!"

"Everyone out, now!" Rude shouted.

Hearing the desparation, Freya and Rod both leaped out from the back, and at the front, Rude and Reno both unbelted themselves and jump out on both sides, as the van continued on without them, driving straight over the cliff and into the river below, blowing up in the progress.

The Turks on the soild ground just layed there, panting at the close call. Rude was the first to get up, and he made his way towards a trumatized Reno who was panting and then rolled onto his back, wheezing as if he just out-run a dragon.

"Reno?" Rude knelt down to see if his partner was okay.

"I'm gettin' too old for this crap." Reno groaned, though he was being sarcastic about it. He hated to admit it, but he had been scared out of his mind.

Being the friend that he was, Rude carefully held Reno in his arms, and lifted the redhead into sitting position, before Reno just found himself leaning against Rude's right arm, unable to find the strength to do so himself. His partner checked him for serious injuries, but found none thankfully.

"Are you alright?" Rude asked, feeling worried.

"Just tired." Reno admitted.

"Get some sleep. I'll carry you." the tall Turk offered.

Reno glanced up at his partner and gave him a thankful smile, before leaning his head to Rude's chest and closed his eyes, falling asleep instantly. Rude then scooped Reno in his arms and stood up, carrying the sleeping Turk bridal-style(or more like Prince Charming does to Snow White).

Freya and Rod, who both recovered, went over to them, and Freya noticed Reno's unconscious form, and immediately asked, "Is Reno alright?"

"Don't worry. He's just asleep." Rude answered, as Reno shifted a little in his sleep, trying to get comfortable.

"What a relief." Freya sighed.

Rod on the other hand, stared at his former mentor's sleeping form, and quirked an eyebrow, saying, "Didn't know he likes to sleep in the most awkward and uncomfortable positions."

Freya rolled her eyes and turned to her partner, pointing out, "You're the one the talk. In summer, you like to sleep in trees."

"Hey, unlike you, I was born in the slums and FYI, trees are more comfortable in summer than beds are!" Rod argued.

"You might as well be a squirral." Freya sighed.

"Keep it down..." Reno mumbled, half-asleep, "I'm tryin' to sleep here." then fell back asleep.

Rude shook his head as he gazed down at his sleeping partner. No matter how old he was, Reno always looked like a child in his sleep, small and vunerable.

Just then, the sound of Cloud's motorbike came and as the Turks looked, Strife arrived and pulled over, leaving the engine running, looking at the others, asking, "Is everyone alright?"

"We're okay." Freya nodded.

"And Reno's decided to take a nap." Rod added, jerking his thumb at the sleeping Turk, to which Cloud noticed.

The blonde haired man stared at the sight, then glanced at Rude and admitted, "I feel sorry for you."

Despite feeling embarrased, Rude kept it to himself, as he replied, "I'm used to it." while Reno groaned again in his sleep.

Cloud couldn't help but smirk. After seeing them together everytime he's met them, he knew that Reno and Rude were very close in a brotherly bond. It reminded him of how he and Zack used to hang out close to each other, considering that outside Nibelhiem and before three years ago that Zack was Cloud's first true best friend. The guy knew how to make friends before his death.

"Okay, since our only transportation is Cloud's seriously the most awesome bike in the world," Rod spoke up, "What now?"

As if to answer the problem, another van, though a bit dented, drove up before stopping beside the group, and in the drivers seat, was a familiar man with short black hair and goatee, in a blue coat-suit. It was Reeve.

Reeve stepped out of the van and approached the group who, except for Reno who was still asleep, stared at him in surprise.

"Cloud, are you and the others alright?" Reeve asked, before noticing Reno's sleeping form, before Rod answered the second unasked question, "Fell asleep."

"Oh." Reeve understood, before he looked at Cloud who replied, "We're okay. Just had a run in by one of the Deepground guys, but managed to get away." then added, "Long time no see, Reeve. Not a very interesting outfit, though." he smirked at Reeve's clothes.

Reeve chuckled, "Vincent said the exact same thing back in Kalm."

This is when Cloud noticed the absence of his Ex-Turk friend, and asked, "Where is Vincent, anyway? Wasn't he with you?"

Reeve sighed and explained, "Unfortunately, on our way to Edge, we were attacked by Guardhouds, and our driver was killed so I had to make an emergency crash landing while Vincent took care of the 'pet' problem."

Rod's attempted cough could not hide his laughter. "If Vincent said _'I'll take care of your pet problem' _then he's seriously still a Turk, because I would say the same thing."

"Anyway," Reeve chose to ignore Rod's comment, even though the young man was right, and added, "I had to fix up the engine, and I need to return to WRO with a transmission we recieved."

"The one about this guy who claims to try and 'cleanse' the world?" Freya asked, "Because we saw that transmission too and were on our way to see you."

Reeve was stunned, then replied, "Yes, that's the one. It really troubles me, so I had to send Vincent to Edge alone."

"You sent Vincent to town all by himself!?" Cloud asked, shocked. "Didn't you hear that he's being targeted by DeepGround for some reason?"

"What? Where did you-"

"Our former director, Veld, found out earlier that Vincent is in danger." Rude cuts Reeve off while giving him an apologetic look.

"We have no idea what for, though." Freya added, "That's why we wanted to come and see you."

There was a moment of silence, as Reeve took in the information in his mind, until he nodded and said, "Alright. Let's head back to WRO immediately." he turned to Rod and instructed, "If it's alright, young man, I'd like you to drive us to HQ."

Rod smirked, "You're asking one of the best bike-riders in history. I'd be happy to drive."

Reeve nodded, then turned to Cloud and requested, "Cloud, I need you to return to Edge in case Vincent is in trouble. I shoud've known that he was being targeted. You the only one who can help him."

Cloud nodded with out hesitation, "Right. I owe Vincent one anyway." as he got back onto Fenir and stepped on in gas, driving away back towards his new hometown in hopes in finding Vincent, while Reeve and the Turks climbed into the Van and drove towards the WRO HQ.

Unaware of any of them, floating up in the air with darkness surrounding him, is a man named Nero the Stable, as he had witnessed the entire thing.

"So that was the hero Cloud Strife and the Turks." Nero said to himself, "Those souls are too tainted by the Lifestream to be touched by my darkness, unlike those others, and especially not like Vincent Valentine."

He had also taken notice of Reno's sleeping form and muttered, "The sleeping one, however, is a special case. Close to the Lifestream three years ago and only now Omega is giving him a warning. I shall keep an eye on both him and Cloud, while soon, Vincent shall become part of our goal."

After he said this, he vanished into the darkness.

* * *

**Reno: Uh...is he gonna swallow me up?(shivering)**

**Tashasaurous: I can't tell you because that'll give the readers spoilers in the next chapter.**

**Cloud: What about me?**

**Tashasaurous: You just need to make sure Vincent and another helper don't get killed. Now, lovely readers, watch out for more chapters and please review before you leave. This story depends on it.**

**Reno: Am I really gonna die?**

**Tashasaurous: Oh, sweetie. (gives Reno a comforting hug)**

**Cloud:...*Just stares***


	4. Barret and Shalua

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: Finally, Chapter four! Sorry, I'm concentrating on two stories at once each day as long as my head would let me.**

**Reno: Good thing that I'm not-**

**Tashasaurous: Shh! Don't spoil it! Okay, shall we?**

**Cloud: Tashasaurous doesn't own anything from Final Fantasy VII.**

**Reno: All rights belong to Square Enix only.**

**Tashasaurous: Now let's begin the next chapter!**

* * *

Chapter Four: Barret and Shalua.

After dropping Marlene, Denzel and Katie to Cosmo Canyon where both Elmya and Nanaki promised to keep the children safe, Tifa travelled with Cisseni and Haruto to Corel to pick up Barret who would no doubt want to join in the fight against Deepground and save the world again for Marlene's sake. The problem was, the Turks would be around and trying to convince him that the helicopter is the fasest transport to WRO would be challenging.

If DeepGround didn't invade yet there already, however. That's another problem.

"Hey, Cissnei?" Tifa called up.

The young urban Turk glanced at the other woman from the co-pilot's seat and replied, "Yes, Tifa?"

"I've been wondering since we escaped Edge." Tifa began, "How is it that you know about Cloud's Mako poisoning and how you know him?" she wanted to ask the question since it was bugging her a lot. She wanted to know so that she can be at ease, no matter what the answer was.

Cissnei looked very uncomfortable, as she glanced at Haruto, who eye-glanced at her and nodded silently. The younger former Turk glanced back at Tifa again, and began, "Are you familiar with Zack?"

The female martial artist nodded, "I met him eight years ago. He...came with Sephiroth and Cloud to Nibelhiem. I didn't know him well, and I...I shouldn't have shouted at him for Nibelhiem's destruction when he was trying to help us and stop Sephiroth, and took care of Cloud before he died."

"Zack's always one to help others without second thought." Cissnei agreed, "Even though he was a ladies man," she giggled at the memory of Zack flirting any pretty girl possible, "he was very sweet, kind and caring. He was also strong young warrior, a skilled swordsmen, and, he always wanted to help out friends. He was possibly the only SOLDIER that the Turks actually got on with."

"Sounds like my friend Aerith before she died." Tifa thought. "And that explains why Cloud was close to him. Other than me, Cloud never really had any friends growing up."

"You know how they both escaped, right?"

"Yes. Zack got himself and Cloud out." Tifa nodded.

Cissnei sighed, before continuing, "The Turks were ordered to hunt them down. I happened to found them first outside Nibelhiem, but, when I saw how badly infected Cloud was...I risked my job and let them escape twice. The second time was in Zack's hometown, and I was off duty at the time, and this was the same time that us Turks were becoming fugitives ourselves."

"Why is that?" Tifa curiously asked. "How is it that you became fugitives while Tseng, Reno and Rude didn't?"

"They too were included in the fugitive list." Haruto answered before Cissnei could speak again. He continued, "It's due that Veld's daughter Felicia whom was named Elfe by the original AVALANCHE and she was one of the leaders. However, Fuhito, the scientest of AVALANCHE, was using them in order to forge the most deadly summon, Ziconiade, in four special summon materia, and use it to destroy all life in the world."

"When Kalm was burned down before it was rebuilt," Cissnei took over, "Veld was informed that his family was dead, but in reality, they, including Veld himself, were taken in to be used for Hojo's experiments. Our former director was the only one to go free, having the metal arm in replacement of his original arm which he lost."

Tifa was stunned, "Sephiroth, Vincent, Lucrecia, Veld, Zack and Cloud...and all of those people...how could Hojo do such horrible things!?" then she realized something and said, "Wait...Felicia was alive, though, right?"

"Yes, and Hojo implanted one of the pieces of the materia inside her body before she escaped and was found by AVALANCHE who tried to end ShinRa in many possible ways. They were much more organized than the one you and the others were in, Tifa. And much more dangerous too." Cissnei explained.

"How did Veld take it?" Tifa asked again.

Haruto sighed, "Not too well, I'm afraid. Felicia had strength that matched Sephiroth's. When we confronted AVALANCHE, Veld saw his daughter for the first time and learned that the materia inside her was draining her life energy. So he left the Turks under Tseng's command in order to try and revive her."

"We couldn't take it well either." Cissnei added, "Despite the orders to execute Veld, Tsen instead ordered us to find the rest of the materia to dig out the last part as well saving Felicia's life. It didn't go according to plan, because not only the company wanted Zack and Cloud dead, but they also thought that since we were aiding Veld just for the promise and honor of our mission, that we were to be executed too. Every last one of us."

"Tseng, Reno and Rude tried their best to rescue Veld, while the rest of us risked our lives to kill Fuhito and destroy Ziconiade before it was fully completed. We succeeded in saving the world, but Tseng and the others were conered by Shinra, and if it weren't for Rufus, despite him having funded AVALANCHE in the first place and was under house arrest until that point, the Turks would've been dead and forgotten. While he made the situation worse, Rufus did save our lives in the end. Tseng had to shot Veld and Felicia, but he made it look like he killed them, but they were still alive so that they could escape, while he, Reno and Rude sacrificed their freedom to remain in ShinRa." Haruto continued.

"And the rest of us went into hiding, until the day Midgar was Evacuated. All of us Turks, including Veld, returned to aid Tseng, Reno, Rude and Elena, and then went back to our lives outside Shinra. I was living in Gongaga to take care of Zack's parents after meteorfall three years ago, since Zack asked me to take care of them and they asked me to join the family." Cissnei concluded.

"Zack's parents asked you to live with them?" Tifa asked.

Cissnei giggled, "They were very nice. Plus, Zack's mother was worried that he'd never get a wife, and," her smile faded as she admitted, "I was abandoned as a baby and lived in the orphanage until I was eight, when Shinra came and raised me. Gongaga was the last time I ever saw Zack..."

She felt a tear fall from her eyes and she quickly wiped it away, before concluding, "I never even got to tell him...my real name."

"Your name's not Cissnei?" Tifa asked, suprised.

"I renamed myself to make my life easier for myself." Cissnei answered. She then added, "Come to think of it, after I let Zack and Cloud go for the first time, I returned to Nibelhiem where I found Veld, and we both investigated the ShinRa manor, and...met Vincent."

"And Vincent didn't join you?" Tifa asked, then thought, "So let me get this straight. You were with the Turks, but due to the old AVALANCHE and Hojo, you were in trouble, and you risked everything to help Zack, Cloud and try and save the world and protect and save another person's life which lead most of you into exile while after that, Cloud, the others and I didn't know and had to fight Tseng and the others?"

"The Planet's true enemies were Rufus' father, Fuhito, Scarlet, Heidegger, Hojo, Sephiroth, and now DeepGround." Haruto said.

"And to think Rufus betrayed all of you, then later save you..." Tifa then realized and remembered the bitter relationship Rufus had with his father and how he already took position as President after Sephiroth killed his father. "Wow. Rufus must've really hated his father. I guess I can't blame him, since the old president was cruel."

"All the former President cared about was world domination and money. He never had time for family." Haruto agreed. "I dare say that some of the bit of caringness Rufus has comes from his mother. He was very clever and mature as a child."

"Even to come up with an escape route at the age of five." Tifa giggled.

Cissnei giggled in agreement. Suddenly as she and Haruto looked ahead again, they both gaped in horror as below them, where Corel is, there was a massive breakout going on, just like in Kalm and Edge.

"Tifa! Get ready to fight! Deepground's here!" Cissnei called out.

Tifa gasped in horror hearing this, then knew that the young former Turk was right. Plus, she was worried about Barret.

* * *

Things were not looking too good. DeepGround came here unexpectedly and began to attack, both human army and weird dog-like mutant things, all attacking the innocent and either dragging them into large containers or killing them if they had Geostigma.

But Barret wasn't going down without a fight. He fully armed his machine-gun arm and fired as many enemies as he could.

"I didn't help rebuild Corel so that it was to become trash again!" Barret shouted at the top of his lungs, as he continued to fire while dodging incoming attacks as well. He wasn't fast, but he sure as hell is the master of machine-gun fighting, even if he's literally attacted to one.

However, he realised too late as a DG helicopter flew behind him. Barret turned around and could only stare in horror as the chopper was about fire at him.

It seemed to backfire, though. Because surprising, the chopper was attacked and shot at, by a familiar ShinRa helicopter which was firing at the enemy chopper, while hovering in the sky, and the side door opened, two familiar people standing on the side, ready to leap out and join in the fight.

"Cissnei! Tifa! I'll hold them off! You go and help the others on the ground!" Haruto ordered while concentrating on his firing.

"Got it!" Cissnei nodded. Then she and Tifa both jumped out at the same time, and landed safely and skillfully on the ground, before joining in the fight.

The female Turk threw her Shuriken-Rekka-in the air and it hit two DeepGround soldiers before returning to her. Tifa then punched and kicked in lighting speed at a tall and bulky DeepGround shoulder, immediately knocking him out, before going for others. Barret, seeing one of his friends there, got over his shock and rejoined the fight.

Despite driving most of DeepGround off, one chopper escaped with a cargo full of people and flew away. Tifa and the others witnessed this but were unable to do anything for now.

"Teef!" Barret called out as he approached the said woman who turned to face him.

Tifa then asked, "Barret, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, though can't say the same thing about Corel." Barret sighed in frustration. Then he asked, "Where's Marlene?"

"I took her and the other kids to Cosmo Canyon for safe keeping." Tifa replied, "And Cloud went to WRO to speak with Reeve about the situation."

Barret then noticed Cissnei and realized that he only recongised her because of the suit. When she approached, he asked, "You a Turk?"

"I was once with the Turks, but I can assure you that we're against DeepGround as well." Cissnei informed.

"Deepground?" Barret asked, "You mean those blue-mako suited guys?"

The two women nodded, just as Haruto landed the Chopper on the ground behind them, the side door still open.

"Barret, I know you still don't like the Turks, but we need help in beating DeepGround. They've taken over Edge and Midgar." Tifa requested.

After a few moments of silence, Barret sighed and replied, "I sure as hell ain't gonna let those DeepGround pieces of s*** to take over or destroy the world. I'll try and be on my best behavior."

"Thanks, Barret." Tifa smiled.

"Thank you, Mr. Barret." Cissnei smiled as well.

Barret looked at the urban woman and cringed, "Who're you calling _Mr. Barret_? That don't sound right! Aerith called me that once too." remembering how while escaping the ShinRa building that Aerith thanked him and called him "Mr." too.

"Sorry." Cissnei giggled while trying to hide it. "My name's Cissnei. It's nice to meet you."

Once aqquinted, the three of them boarded the chopper, and Haruto closed the side-door and flew it back towards WRO HQ.

The older Turk then took time to glance at Barret in the back and said, "I gather that you're Barret."

"And don't you forget it!" Barret replied, "So who're you?"

"I am Haruto. Pleasure to meet you." Haruto replied.

"At least you're better than redhead." Barret sighed.

Haruto chuckled, "You mean Reno? He and I never got on very well either despite being comrades."

"And you always lost to Rude whenever he goes into '_big-brother_' mode on us and when you wanted to teach a new female member something new and he takes over." Cissnei added.

The specked man sighed while remaining silent and just concentrating on flying. Barret and Tifa glanced at each other, now seeing the new side of the Turks, possibly while they were not on duty in ShinRa.

* * *

Meanwhile, Cloud had arrived back in Edge where everything's completely silent, and it was dark and raining, on top of everything else. He knew that DeepGround had took over and had to be careful.

He then spotted a woman with long orange-red hair tied up in a ponytail, in a lab coat and blue high-heeled shoes. He then approached her, but the woman noticed him and he saw that her left eye was closed andher left arm was replaced with a mecanile one, just like Veld's.

Cloud then took notice of the ID badge she was wearing. "You're with WRO?" he asked.

"Why do you say that?" The woman asked coldy.

"My name is Cloud Strife." Cloud introduced himself and replied, "I've been sent by Reeve to check on our friend Vincent Valentine."

The woman paused, then relaxed, and replied, "My apologuies. I'm Shalua Rai of WRO. The Commissioner told me much about you and Vincent, Cloud."

"Do you know where Vincent is?"

"You just missed him. He arrived earlier, and should be fighting against DeepGround as we speak." Shalua explained.

"I have to find him." Cloud said, "He's in danger, because DeepGround wants to capture him."

Shalua was caught off guard by this, and asked, "Why is that?"

"I don't know." Cloud replied, "I have to find him and warn him about all this." he sighed, admitting, "I don't even know if anyone besides myself and my family managed to get out before DeepGround invaded."

"Your family?"

"Tifa, Denzel, and Marlene." Cloud answered.

Another moment of silence, then Shalua then said, "Then I guess we should go and find Vincent, and then we part ways from there. I have other business to attend to."

"Other business?"

"Searching for my reason to live." was Shalua's reply, before she began to walk away.

Cloud stood there for a moment, uncertain on what the woman he just met was talking about. Deciding to forget about it for now, he followed her in hopes in finding Vincent before DeepGround did.

* * *

As they moved on, they suddenly heard a loud boom, and a little up ahead, a strange red light forming before it faded. Cloud and Shalua then both raced to where it came from, and once they reached it, Cloud gasped in horror.

Just a little head of him, was a familiar man in a red cape, standing in the rain, before collasping onto the ground. Shalua approached him slowly first.

Eventually, Cloud approached as well, then quickly bend down and checked up on the man before him. It was Vincent, and the ex-Turk was unconscious!

"Vincent? Vincent!" Cloud cried out, but his friend was out cold.

"What in the world happened?" Shalua asked, also shocked to see Vincent's unconscious form, seeing the strange beast that took over his body briefly before returning to normal, and was even more shocked on how Cloud was brave enough to confront the man who was clearly more than human now. How long, though, Shalua didn't know.

"I don't know." Cloud sighed, "Vincent hardly ever used his demon forms that often unless it's in case of emergency."

"Demon forms?" Shalua asked.

Cloud sighed bitterly, "Hojo experimented on him 30 years ago, around the same time Sephiroth was born. Hojo was the true monster and the Planet's real enemy."

"Sounds like you know him more than you speak." Shalua figured, then suggested, "We should get Vincent to WRO for recovery. I'll call for a ride."

"Thanks, Shalua." Cloud nodded. While the woman made a phone call, Cloud checked on his friend again, and whispered, "Was that Chaos Vincent turned into? If it was...why did cause him to lose consciousness? It never happened before."

Either way, Cloud knew that he wasn't getting any answers at the moment, and he was worried that he may never at this rate.

For that he and his friend had no idea that the sitation was just as worse as they would ever believe in.

* * *

**Tashasaurous: There you have it! Vincent makes an appearence, though he's sleeping at the moment.**

**Vincent: (suddenly appearing) *Ahem* I happened to be unconscious, due to Chaos inside me.**

**Tashasaurous: Right, sorry. Anyway, to Copper Moon, I hope you don't mind that I burrow the name "Haruto" for this story(and along with Aven for my Sailor Moon Continuum if you wanna check it out).**

**Reno: Now can I say that it's a good thing that I wasn't in this chapter?**

**Tashasaurous: You just said it, but yes, you can. Okay, where were we?**

**Cloud: Don't forget to review before you leave.**

**Tashasaurous: Thanks, Cloud, and welcome abord, Vince.**

**Vincent:...**


	5. Nightmare, Clue and Aerith

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: Okay, after this chapter, I'm taking a break.**

**Reno: Why's that?**

**Tashasaurous: Writer's block.**

**Vincent: I see.**

**Cloud: Me too.**

**Tashasaurous: Okay, guys, you know the drill.**

**All three men: Tashasaurous doesn't own anything from Final Fantasy VII, because it belongs to Square Enix.**

* * *

Chapter Five: Nightmare, Clue and Aerith.

_Reno was dreaming. He didn't know how or why, but for some reason, he was under water, but he could breath just fine as if he was outside in fresh air. He looked around, feeling a bit freaked out and scared._

_"Where am I? And how the hell can I breathe?" Reno asked, only to get no answer at the moment._

_As he looked around, he noticed something behind him and looked. Reno instantly regretted in doing so as his eyes widened in horror. A huge...whatever it was, about the size of the Shinra building, if not bigger. Come to think of it, it was even bigger than the WEAPONS from three years ago._

_To his horror, the thing's eyes glowed, and Reno felt that it was looking at him, right into his very soul. Reno felt his heart become frozen in fear. He wanted to run, but his legs refused to obey him. He was speechless as well. He was paralyzed in fear._

_Then, in front of the giant monster, a figure formed. Reno managed to glance away from the beast and to the other figure, but it was blurry. Though he can see strange looking long gun blades, and then all of the sudden, the figure sped towards him, giving Reno no time to scream as he felt fear return to him..._

Jolting up right, Reno gasped as he sat up, panting. He glanced around, noticing that he was in a familiar room with a computer and that he was lying on a long stool which was surprisingly comfortable. Once he realised where he was, he sighed in relief.

"Reno?" the redhead jumped in fright as someone said his name, before looking, and then sighed again, since it was Rude who was sitting in a chair near him, before the taller man got up and approached his friend.

"Don't scare me like that, partner." Reno grumbled, placing his right hand onto his chest to try and calm down. "I've been spooked by a nightmare already."

Rude bend down and replied, "Sorry."

"It's okay." Reno said, then asked, "Where are we?"

"The WRO headquarters. Reeve brought us here, and Cloud went to Edge where Valentine is." Rude explained.

Reno then remembered the incident out on the road on the way to WRO, Azul appearing out of now where before Cloud managed to drive him off, and the Turks leaping out of the van which it's brakes were broken, and then the last thing he remembered was falling asleep.

"How long was I out?" Reno asked, yawning.

"Four hours." was the reply.

The redhead was surprised, then thought, "Man, I must've been really exhausted."

"Are you okay?" Rude asked.

Reno nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine." he then frowned and thought, "That dream...it's just like the one the past few weeks, but now it's gettin' worse. I was...I was up close to the thing that I mentioned earlier." he couldn't remember the figure that tried to kill him, though. But he was scared.

The taller Turk gently rubbed the younger Turk's back, to which Reno glanced up at his best friend with a grateful smile, saying, "I'm okay. Just a little paranoid."

"It'll be alright." Rude assured, "We went through a hell of a lot as Turks for years. And I know you; you're the most bravest person I've ever met."

Reno chuckled, "I'm not that brave, but you're right. We did go through a hellva a lot." he smirked, "I still remember the elevator incident, and the Genesis crisis." then he and Rude looked at each other, realising what Reno just said about the Genesis part.

"That reminds me," Reno thought, "Nobody's heard of him for 8 years now. Wonder what happened to him."

Before Rude could say something, the doors opened and Rod raced in, looking a bit out of steam. The redhead noticed that the older redhead was finally awake and sighed, "Great, you're awake, Sleeping Beauty." he couldn't help himself to tease his former superior.

"Shut up, kiddo." Reno grumbled, but smirked anyway. He then frowned again and asked, "So, what's the hurry?"

"It's the Vampire guy! He got knocked out cold and Cloud had to drag his ass back here." Rod explained.

The older Turks stood up in alarm, as Rude asked, "Where is Vincent?" both he and Reno know that Vincent, despite not being a real vampire, seriously looked just like one. Not to mention that he slept in a coffen in a old mansion for 30 years.

Rod led them into another room with a couple of water pods, where Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Cissnei, Haruto, Freya and Shalua were waiting, until the group noticed the three men's entrance. If anything, Shalua didn't seem terribly impressed. Vincent himself was inside the pod for recovering, sleeping at the moment. A sight like this gave them the creeps, and to Cloud, it was somehow giving him memories of when he and Zack were both imprisoned in similiar pods.

"Reno, you're awake." Freya sighed in relief at the sight of the older redhead who smirked back at her.

"You seriously think I'd was gonna end up in comatose like you, Freya?" Reno replied, "Don't like one of my own to be sleeping for years."

"You were in comatose too?" Cloud asked at the female Turk who sighed and answered, "A year after the...Nibelhiem incident, there was an attack in one of the Mako Reactors and I was badly hit, with mako poisioning like you, and I was unconsious for three years."

Rod nodded, "Yeah, we were all worried that she wouldn't wake up. Three years with her in Mako poisoning was hell." he didn't admit it to anyone, but he had a huge crush on Freya.

Cloud gave him a look and pointed out, "I was unconscious for five years, and Vincent was asleep for 30 years."

"He has a good point." Haruto agreed.

"So how did Vince end up like this in the first place?" Reno asked, wanting to know what happened.

"He was unconscious when Shalua and I found him." Cloud answered, not wanting to tell them that Vincent had briefly turned into Chaos which for some reason reduced his friend into this state now.

"DeepGround do this to him?" Reno asked, finding himself a bit worried. If the blue-mako suited guy managed to knock Vincent out like this, then they're in serious trouble. According to the reports three years ago, the man could easily dodge and fight against giant monsters and have no injuries at all. Then again, Hojo was sick.

Cloud shook his head, "I don't know. There was hardly anyone in Edge by the time I went back."

"Corel was being attacked too, but thanks to Teef and your Turk buddies that it was saved." Barret admitted.

"Hey, when we said that Rufus and the rest of us wanted to redeem ourselves, we meant it, man." Reno said. "Besides, if it weren't for the orders, I would've just left Sector 7 as it was. But I didn't have a choice."

"Whatever." Barret sighed.

"There's some bad news, however." Cissnei spoke up, wanting to end the tense. "DeepGround escaped with a container filled with people."

"Like in Kalm?" Rude asked. The others nodded.

Reno then realised something and knew there was a connection. "The crew that went to investigate Midgar disappeared three weeks ago, and just recently around the same time, 1200 people vanished in Junon without a trace, and now this happened." he summed up everything, including what Cloud and everyone else in Edge had heard for the past few weeks. He looked at the others who heard him say this.

"DeepGround's responsible for all of those in the first place." He said, "When the investigation crew opened up the seal in Midgar that's been locked up for years, that's when Deepground launched their attack in the first place and I bet their first victums were those crew and the cameramen, before escaping and made their move, and only now they're being heard of and encountered."

"That means," Tifa realised, "It explains all those screams that came from Midgar." horror began to form on her expression.

Cloud clutched his fist in growing anger. "Those screams were the people who went missing, because they were being killed."

"But what for, though?" Shalua questioned, "It doesn't make any sense at all, and it can't be to 'safe' the world."

"The Pure will be spared while the tainted end up getting hunted down like animals." Rude said, remembering the strange man's transmission, then asked, "Are they trying to take over the world as their own?"

"Ain't gonna happen!" Barret exclaimed, "None of us went through all that trouble to save the world just so these Deepground punks can go and destroy it!"

Rod smirked, "I really like you, man. Not to mention your style too."

"Too bad you and Reno are pretty much alike, kinda like mirror images." Tifa giggled, causing Freya and Cissnei to laugh, Haruto and even Rude and Cloud smirked.

Reno and Rod both protested in unision, "Are not!" before realising what they did and looked away awkwardly.

"So, what now?" Barret asked, once the amusment moment passed.

"I remember that Yuffie was heading over to Nibelhiem, and that Cid was gonna head over to the Gold Saucer." Tifa recalled.

Nibelhiem. The place where everything began. Where the nightmare began. Nodding, Cloud declared, "I'll head to Nibelhiem for some answers about all this. I remember that Hojo had a lot of secrets there besides what happened to Sephiroth and Vincent."

"I'll go with you." Tifa voulenteered.

"Me too." Freya added, "Besides, you guys need the greatest hunter of the Turks to hunt down some Deepground losers."

"I will accompany you." Haruto declared, "It is very dangerous and-"

"No. Way." Rod cuts him off, "I'm going. You stay with the others, and besides, knowing you, you'll try an flirt with Tifa and Freya."

Freya smiled in gratidute towards her partner, while Cloud, Tifa and Shalua glanced at each other, Cissnei giggled, Rude shook his head and Reno formed his trademark grin, saying, "He's got ya there, glasses."

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on Vincent." Shalua voulenteered.

Cloud nodded in appreciation, "Thanks, Shalua."

"And the rest of us will meet up with Tseng and Elena and figure out more about this." Reno concluded, with Rude, Haruto(who was still grumbling silently) and Cissnei nodding in agreement.

"Hey, who says I'm going with the Turks?" Barret asked.

"You can come with us if you want." Tifa offered.

"I'll take that offer." Barret agreed readily.

Everyone agreed, and after Cloud told Reeve about the plan, the groups went their separate ways for now, with Vincent not knowing at the moment, and neither of them knowing the situation that was about to get a lot worse.

* * *

In Cosmo Canyon, Nanaki was with the children and Elmya who were very worried about what was going to happen. Marlene was worried the most. She silently prayed that her father, Tifa and Cloud were alright.

The seven year old closed her eyes, but when she opened them again, she found herself in a bright light area by herself. Startled, she looked around in confusion, wondering where she was. She'd seen strange things before, but this takes the cake for the little girl.

And like before, she could somehow sense her. The flower lady.

"Is it her?" Marlene asked out of nowhere.

"_Marlene_." a familiar and beautiful voice called out.

The young girl turned around and there stood, the young woman who died three years ago, the woman who saved Marlene's life and took care of Barret, Tifa, Cloud and everyone else, the woman who loved flowers and was special enough to call out the Lifestream and aid Cloud in defeating Sephiroth.

Aerith.

"Are you real?" Marlene asked.

"_I came because I was worried. You've grown up since I last saw you, Marlene._" Aerith replied, "_Did Cloud give you the ribbon?_" she asked, looking at the hair ribbon in the young girl's hair that was identical to her own. Come to think of it. Marlene almost resembled to Aerith.

Marlene nodded, "Uh-huh and I love it. I always knew that you were always looking out for everybody, and keeping daddy, Cloud and Tifa safe."

"_It suits you._" Aerith smiled, then said, "_Marlene, I need you to be brave and believe in Vincent. He'll be the one to save the world this time._"

"Mr. Vincent's gonna be okay, right?" the young girl asked.

"_Don't worry. The girl he cares about is watching him too. She saved Vincent's life a long time ago._" was Aerith's reply, before everything faded, and the next thing Marlene knew, she was back in the safe house with Denzel and the others.

The young girl looked around, before somehow realising what this meant, and looked up at the sky, thinking to herself, '_I gotta believe in Mr. Vincent, just like the Flower lady says_.'

* * *

In an area with a large crater with the Lifestream flowing freely, and with a burnt down mansion near it, Rufus Shinra, Tseng, Elena, Rafe and Rosalind were staying put until they hear something from Reno and the others. They were in the ruins of Banora which was bombed down ten years ago. Tseng remembered that day, because he was here with Zack Fair before the latter's death 8 years later.

Elena was looking around, until she found a chair which nobody noticed until now, and found a piece of paper on it. Curious, she went over and picked it up, and read through it.

_~To become the dew that quenches the land._

_To spare the sands, the seas and the skies,_

_I offer thee this silent sacrifce~_

_LOVELESS._

Loveless? But this wasn't part of Loveless, and the fifth act was missing. Elena frowned in confusion.

"Elena, what did you find?" Tseng spoke up as he noticed and approached the youngest Turk who was a bit startled, before she looked at him.

"I found this strange note on Loveless." Elena replied, showing the Wutaiian the note. Tseng looked at it, before he realised what it was.

"There's only one man who could have wrote this, despite it possibly not true." said Tseng.

Elena titled her head a bit to the side. "Who, sir?"

The answer Tseng said gave the young woman a pause.

"A man named Genesis who is reported dead."

* * *

**Tashasaurous: Aerith makes an appearence too! Let's party!**

**Cloud: She only appeared in spirit. I wish she and Zack can come back to life.**

**Reno: I completely forgot about Genesis. What happened to him?**

**Vincent: Who is Genesis?**

**Tashasaurous: Can't tell, it'll give spoilers. Now, as you all know, I'm taking a much needed break to get my head around things, especially since my sister and her husband are trying to buy a house off my parents, which is like, OMG. Please review and tell me what you think, and I'll return as soon as possible.**


	6. Return to Nibelhiem and Flashback

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: Sorry about the delay. Like I said, I had a writer's block for this story, but hey, chapter six is up and running now!**

**Cloud: Why did you have to add Nibelhiem?**

**Tashasaurous: Because it made an appearence in Dirge of Cerberus, and this is also the place where Vincent...well, you know.**

**Vincent: Thanks for reminding me.**

**Reno: I hated that town to begin with. So backwater.**

**Tashasaurous: Oh, hush! Now, remember readers, I don't own Final Fantasy VII or it's characters. Those rights belong to Square Enix.**

* * *

Chapter Six: Return to Nibelhiem and Flashback.

If there was one thing that Cloud never wanted to do in his life, was return to the place where he was born, where he had a rough childhood, where he left but failed to fufill his dream, and where the nightmare began-Sephiroth burning the town to a crisp, killing many innocent people, Cloud throwing him into the Mako Reactor before his comatose and imprisonment with his close friend Zack, the escape five years later, and the town being rebuilt to hide ShinRa's shame.

It was tough not just on Cloud or Tifa, but also for the Turks, especially Freya, who had witnessed the burning part, and that day was the first time she actually questioned herself about her position as a Turk. Come to think of it, it was hard on Reno, Rude and Tseng as well, neither of them wanting to imprison the suvivors for Hojo as experiments, but had no other choice, and this included Zack who was close friend with Tseng at the time.

For Tifa, she escaped from being another test subject thanks to her master who took her away from the horrible place, but it wasn't easy for either of them either way. Rod and Barret both understood how their friends were feeling, and now, it's just as bad since, as they were arriving, to their dismay, DG soldiers were already taking residence in the now abandoned town, which is more like a spooky ghost town.

"Oh come on!" Rod hissed softly. "I'm sick and tired of seeing these blue-glowing freaky-suited guys!"

Barret grunted in agreement, "How the hell do we get in?"

"Why not the Reactor?" Freya suggested. "That might have some kind of secret enterance to the mansion."

The others looked at her, surprised, and Cloud and Tifa, both having grown up here, also knew another way.

"That might also lead us to the sewers too. I think it mostly connects to the mansion anyway." Cloud thought.

"Good idea." Tifa agreed, "Plus, some of the boys used to go and play in there when Cloud and I were children."

Barret, Rod and Freya didn't like the sound of that. "Ew." Freya cringed in disgust.

"Well, this brings back gross memories of being a Turk." Rod grumbled.

"What gross memories?" Barret asked.

The redhead shrugged, "Ah, you know, the usual. The most gross part I hated in being a Turk is being assigned with Proffessor Creep-Show."

"Hojo?" Cloud asked, shivering at the thought.

"Yup." Rod nodded, "I guess Reno's influence in calling the old mother f***** creep-show got the better of me."

"Yeah, it's a real mystery in why Rufus' father hired a horrible, disgusting monster like Hojo in the first place." Freya added, and the other three all nodded in agreement.

Cloud, not wanting to waste anymore time, then said, "Alright then, let's mosey."

* * *

It was bad enough to return to Nibelhiem where the nightmare began, but having to go into the now abandoned mako reactor where Cloud first killed Sephiroth was even worse, because it was here that he and his friend Zack, despite having saved the world the first time from the crazy madmen, were instead taken away from their positions and freedom, and became prisoners and experiments for the man who was very cause of the situation from the very beginning. In meaning, that ever since Hojo was born, that the world was completely screwed.

Having thankfully avoided DG Soldiers thanks to Freya's hunting skills, that the group managed to silently get into the reactor and were now inside the very room where Cloud had fought against the now(hopefully for good) dead former general. Something else was happening here, and for some reason, Cloud felt it was familiar, but he had no idea how or why. For Tifa and Freya, it was a nightmare to be here.

"Ugh." Rod groaned in disgust. "This reactor's worse than the one in Midgar. It's almost like we're inside a stomach or something."

"What the hell's with these pods?" Barret asked, as he noticed the pod lined up on both sides of the stairs that lead up to the chamber where the monsterous form outside of the world was kept until eight years ago, where a plate was still there that read "JENOVA".

Cloud looked at them and there was something that hit inside his head, but he didn't understand how or why. He felt that he went inside here before and not just because he had to fight Sephiroth, but something else. "Aaverage SOLDEIR members are mako-infused humans." he suddenly said, then blinked in surprise.

"Uh, what?" Rod asked, looking at Cloud as if the blonde man was speaking gibberish all of sudden.

"What is it, Cloud?" Tifa asked, growing concerned.

Cloud looked down. Where did that come from? Why did it sound so familiar?

All of the sudden, he felt a powerful and painful jolt in his head, and his left hand flew to hold his head, as he grunted, almost falling to the ground, making the others suddenly worried as Tifa and Freya went over to him, and guided him to sit on the ground.

"Cloud! What's wrong?" Tifa asked, sounding scared.

The blonde didn't hear her, or anything else. Instead, he heard something familiar, and a new image entered his mind, something that he once thought was his own memories, but instead, it was a memory of someone else...

_"This is the cause of the malfunction." Sephiroth says. Cloud was now seeing the memory of Zack before Nibelhiem was burned down._

_The younger SOLDIER decided to take a peak into the pod Sephiroth looked at, and he cringed at the sight of a monster inside. He had seen and battled monsters before, but this one, it scared him to death and it took the cake of the most terrifying monsters contest(_If there was one_). "What is that?" Zack asked, managing to keep calm as Sephiroth stood beside him._

_"You average SOLDEIR members are mako-infused humans," Sephiroth replied. Zack looked at him. "You're enhanced, but you're still human. But then, what are those things? Their mako energy levels are exponentially higher that yours."_

_Sephiroth paused, before asking softly, "But then...what are those things?"_

_"You said 'average' member," Zack said. "What about you?" he asked, a little curious and worried. He had the right to worry, because he knew that Sephiroth was the most powerful SOLDIER in ShinRa, if not, the most powerful man in the world._

_Suddenly, it seemed that Sephiroth's head was pounding in pain, and he stumbled forward, clutching it._

_"Hey! Sephiroth!" Zack tried to help him but was shoved away as the man continued to stumble forward._

_"Could it be…that I…" He lowered his hands. "I was created the same way? Am I the same as these monsters?" he sighed, "I knew..." Sephiroth continued, "Ever since I was a child, I was not like the others. I knew and I could tell, that I was a special existence." One of the pods opened and one of the blue/red creatures fell out. "But this…this is not what I mean."_

_Sephiroth lifted his hands and stared at them. "Am I…a human being?"_

_"No such luck. You are a monster." a voice said._

_Magic was shot out at all four of them, resulting in Zack being hit and blown away while Sephiroth blocked his. From what Cloud couldn't recongise, was a man in a red leather coat, but his body seemed to be decaying as if he was dead, as the man landed on the set of stairs behind them both. To Cloud's horror, the man had a single black wing, just like the real Sephiroth had._

_"You are the greatest monster created by the Jenova project." says the man in red._

_"Genesis! You are alive!" Zack cried out, struggling to stand, but it was apparent that Genesis' attack had meant to keep him out of the way._

_Genesis looked at them with a small smirk. "I suppose I am, if you can call this living." he ran a hand down the side of his face._

_"What is the Jenova Project?" Sephiroth demanded softly._

_"The Jenova project was the term used for all experiments relating to the use of Jenova's cells."_

_"My mother's…cells?" Sephiroth questioned._

_'_Jenova isn't your mother! Lucrecia is_!' thought Cloud, though he knew that it was completely useless since he's just seeing a vision or something._

_Genesis spread his arms out. "Poor little Sephiroth…you've never actually met your mother. You've only been told her name?." He sat of the stairs as everyone listened. "I don't know what images you've conjured up in your head, Sephiroth, but…"_

_"Genesis, no!" Zack struggled to stand up, but couldn't._

_"Jenova was excavated from a 2,000-year-old rock layer. She's a monster."_

_Sephiroth gasped and took a step or two back, not knowing what to think._

_"Sephiroth…I need your help." He continued. "My body is continuing to degrade." He stood again. "SOLDEIR 1st Class Sephiroth!" Sephiroth lifted his head, shock still on his face. "Jenova Project G gave birth to Angeal and monsters like myself," He lifted his arms again, "Jenova Project s…"_

_"S?" Zack echoed._

_"…used the remains of countless failed experiments to create a perfect monster."_

_Sephiroth sighed, before he turned to his former friend and questioned, "What do you want of me?"_

_"Your traits cannot be copied onto others. Your genes can't be diffused. Therefore, your body cannot degrade." Genesis took a few steps forward. "Share your cells with me." He looked at the silver-haired man. "_My friend, your desire_," He held out a dumbapple. "_Is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess_."_

_Sephiroth slowly turned, looked at Genesis before gazing up at the door at the top of the stairs. Images of the creatures flashed through his mind. He gave a cold sigh._

_"Whether your words…" Sephiroth began. "Are lies created to deceive me…" He gazed back to the man in red. "Or the truth, that we have sought all my life…it makes no difference," He knocked the fruit from Genesis' hands as he narrowed his eyes. Genesis looked surprised. "You will rot." He trailed down the rest of the stairs._

_Genesis grabbed his hand. "I see…perfect monster, indeed." He began to pace. "_When the war of the beasts brings about the worlds end the Goddess descends from the sky. Wings of light and dark spread afar. She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting_." He left as well._

_"No, stop!" Zack finally to his feet, ran after him. Then the next thing Cloud knew...the image faded and he lost consciousness..._

"Cloud! Hey, Cloud!" Freya's voice called out, as the world began to return to the said blonde.

"Yo, Spiky! Wake up!" shouted Barret's voice, which seemed to do the trick.

Cloud groaned, muttering, "Barret, please stop shouting. I'm not deaf." as he blinked his eyes open, and noticed Barret, Freya, Tifa and Rod hovering over him with worried looks on their faces.

"Cloud, are you alright?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Cloud muttered, sitting up slowly, his head still feeling a bit fuzzy and dizzy. "What happened?" he asked.

"We were about to ask the same thing, man." Rod said, only to recieve glares from the others, before he shrugged cluelessly, "At least I was about to ask the same thing."

They were silent for a moment, before Cloud replied, "I remember passing out, and then...I was seeing a memory, not my own, but..." he then realised why it was familiar and felt like smacking himself for being so stupid; Zack's memories were interfering his mind again, and it hasn't done that since he got his real memories back three years ago, after Aerith's death.

"Was it Zack's memory?" Tifa asked, feeling scared because she knew what her friend was talking about. She witnessed the whole thing within the Lifestream when she helped Cloud to find himself again. She remembered seeing Cloud's memories, and to tell the truth, it scared her because it was now part of her memories.

"Yeah..." Cloud nodded eventually.

"Wait, what?" Rod asked, dumbfounded.

"Remember how I was suffering Mako Poisoning?" Cloud asked, and the Turks nodded, before he continued, "Zack and I were both injected with Sephiroth's cells by Hojo after Nibelhiem burned down. It wasn't until Zack...was killed by the army that were after us that I woke up. I remember..." he paused, hating the fact that he had to re-live the tragic events again, before continuing, "I remember crawling to Zack's side, and he made me...his living legacy. But, because of his death...the cells and the poisoning got the better of me, and Zack's memories merged with mine."

Cloud sighed, "That's why I strongly believed that I was an ex-SOLDIER 1st Class, because I forgot Zack and had some of his memories inside my mind. It wasn't until...that I lost consciousness again due to Sephiroth that I realised that I was never in SOLDIER."

Tifa then took over and said, "When Mideel was attacked by one of the WEAPONS, Cloud and I both fell into the Lifestream, and were inside Cloud's sub-consciousness. I helped a little bit in Cloud finding his real-self and remembering Zack, before we both managed to return home."

"So you're saying that Cloud's mako-poisoning worsened due to what Hojo did to him and when Zack died?" Freya asked, while feeling a twinge of guilt that she couldn't save Zack's life either. She then added, "And the Lifestream allowed you guys to return to the world of the living?"

"That's pretty messed up, but then again, anything that's impossible is possible." Rod shrugged. "It's a miracle that everyone survived Meteor three years ago."

"And I haven't had Zack's memories after that...until now." Cloud concluded.

Barret looked at him with an eye-brow raised, asking, "So what did ya see?"

Cloud shifted uncomfortably, before replying, "You guys remember when I said that Sephiroth found out about Jenova?" Tifa and Barret nodded, before Cloud continued, "I was seeing that, except that Zack was in the real place this time, and...it was more clearler...something changed in the memory too. Another man was included."

"Another man?" Tifa asked, puzzled.

"Who?" Freya asked, getting a bad feeling about this.

"I don't know if I've seen the guy before or not, but," Cloud explained, "He had this ginger hair which was somehow graying quickly, despite that he was around Sephiroth's age, red leather coat, mako eyes, and he had a wing like Sephiroth did. Zack called him...Genesis."

Tifa and Barret were not familiar with the name, but Freya and Rod were, as the two Turks glanced at each other in horror and realization.

"S***! I completely forgot about Genesis!" Rod cursed.

"It makes perfect sense." Freya realised, "Ever since he deserted SOLDIER, Genesis had gone completely crazy, and I bet he's the one who must've made Sephiroth go bonkers too."

"Wait a minute." Tifa spoke up. "Who is Genesis? And how he is connected with Sephiroth?"

Freya looked at the youngerish woman and answered, "Genesis, former SOLDIER 1st Class, one of the higher ranked SOLDIERs along side Sephiroth and another named Angeal. Those three were probably close to each other...until ten years ago."

The three non-Turks had their eyes widened in horror at this.

Now things were getting just as worse.

* * *

**Tashasaurous: Okay, so it's a slow chapter, but I suck in making action-packed fighting scenes. Please don't flame me or this story!**

**Genesis: *Suddenly appearing out of nowhere* How am I not included in person in this story?**

**Reno: *scared craples* AHHH! Genesis! Where the hell did you come from!?**

**Cloud:...Oh great. Now this guy's here too.**

**Vincent: So you're Genesis?**

**Genesis: There is no hate, only joy-**

**Tashasaurous: Sorry, but I have to cut this one short, and I still have no idea whether the announcement of Final Fantasy VII remake is true or not. If so, then my favorite Compilation is screwed, because then the secret ending will end up being left as a cliff-hanger.**

**Genesis: What!? They can't leave me in the dark forever!**

**Reno: Welcome to our world, man.**

**Cloud: *Ahem* Please don't forget to review, or Tashasaurous might threaten you.**

**Tashasaurous: No, I was more thinking about using Gen' and Vince' to kill those who are Hojo fans.**

**Genesis and Vincent: *Blank stare*...**


	7. Connections from the Start

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: We have Chapter 7, with a bit of a surprise in it as well.**

**Reno: What kind?**

**Cloud: I'm not sure if I want to know.**

**Vincent: Neither do I.**

**Genesis: When am I ever going to be put in the story?**

**Tashasaurous: Now, now, guys. Paitence is a vertue. Anywho, let's continue the adventure, and remember, I don't own Final Fantasy VII or it's characters. I don't even own any Final Fantasy games. All of them belong to Square Enix.**

* * *

Chapter Seven: Connections from the Start.

"Sephiroth...had friends?" Tifa asked fearfully.

Freya nodded grimly, "Yup, and the thing is, like Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal were both experimented on with Jenova cells...at least, that's what the report says."

"The F***!?" Barret shouted, "How many did Hojo want!?"

Rod shushed him, before answering, "It wasn't just Hojo, it was another guy who was the one that experimented on Angeal and Genesis. His name was Hollander and despite that Angeal was a success or whatever while Genesis was a failure, Hollander lost his bidding of leadership to Hojo after what's his face left."

"Gast." Cloud recalled, "Yeah, he left and lived in Icicle Inn, but he was killed by Hojo."

"How'd you know?" Freya asked.

"Long story," Cloud muttered, before asking, "But, what about Genesis and Angeal?"

The two Turks looked at each other, before Freya explained, "Ten years ago, he deserted and took a bunch of other SOLDIERs except for Zack with him, and while he was degrading due to being a failure, Genesis could transfer his transplants and abilities, to both humans and monsters, and turn them into clones."

"Angeal had the same ability, but he didn't degrade until he asked Zack to kill him." Rod added.

Cloud took all this information in, and while he was still shocked about the events, and okay, now it made sense that because of Genesis dying, the crimson soldier went insane, got other SOLDIERs except Zack, and lastly Sephiroth to go all crazy and lost their minds, all due to the Jenova cells and the two monsterous scientests that were supposed to be human but were anything but, the blonde-haired man couldn't understand why Zack didn't mention it.

Then he realised that the reason why Zack didn't say anything about Angeal is because he didn't want to, in order to keep feelings and emotions in check. Cloud also realized that like himself, Zack failed to save someone, and perhaps Angeal was his close friend before the misson in Modelhiem, and failed to save a close friend. It made more sense. One of the reasons that Zack chose to get himself and Cloud out is because he didn't want to fail in saving a friend again, and sacrificed himself to keep Cloud safe.

"_Cloud...for both of us. You have to live...My dreams, and my honor...they're yours now...You'll be...my living legacy._" Zack's final words echoed in Cloud's mind, and the blonde was certain he felt tears form in his eyes, having to relive the event that caused Cloud to fail in saving one of his best friends who before failed to save another friend, but succeeded in saving another while accepting his cruel fate.

Despite wanting to see Aerith again, Zack must've realised that he was ready to die that day, in order to save Cloud and have him continue to live.

'Zack...' Cloud thought, 'I think I understand now how you must've felt with this Angeal. I felt the same way when you and both Aerith had died.'

"Is Genesis...still alive?" Cloud couldn't help but ask, causing the others to look at him.

Freya then shrugged and answered, "Not that I know of. They say that Genesis died around four years ago. His last appearence was near Gongaga, but nobody's heard from him in ages, so, he was reported dead."

"I heard that Lazard, the former Director of SOLDIER and Rufus's older half-brother was aiding Genesis before he took off and was reported dead too." Rod recalled.

"Wait a minute." Tifa asked, "Rufus had a half-brother?"

Rod shrugged, "Don't look at us. We're the former Turks. Besides, Rufus's old man was nutsy-koo-koo with power and money...and a couple of women. If ya ask me, I reckon that ol' man Shinra chose Rufus as the future President because Lazard preferred to being the director of SOLDIER. I've met the guy before. He wasn't that bad. Wasn't as crazy with money either."

"That's just disgusting." Barret muttered.

"Genesis must've been the one who convinced Sephiroth about Jenvoa too." Cloud realised.

"In that case, we'll investigate on the Project-G reports to make more clear about this." Freya suggested, "In the mean-time, I think we should get going, clearly there's nothing much for us here or in Nibelhiem to investigate."

While the group hated to admit that coming here was a waste of time, but at least they can alert Reeve that the town is also over-taken by DeepGround soldiers. Plus, none of them really wanted to be here to begin with, and Cloud now had a clearer idea of what really happened with Sephiroth, and not just Sephiroth, but also Genesis and Angeal, and Zack was unfortunately dragged into the situation that costed him and Cloud their freedom. The price of freedom was steep back then.

* * *

The group were making their way back to the entrance in the same tunnel Cloud, Zack, Tifa and Sephiroth took eight years previously, where the mako fountain was discovered, which, again, neither Cloud or Tifa wanted to remember. So they continued on without thinking about the past that much.

Suddenly, something, or rather, someone, fell through the ceiling and landed in front of the group who stopped frozen in shock, quickly getting into defence. What was strance is that the man in front of them was wearing a red hood, strange red clothing, his face all white with creepy yellow eyes, creepy white hands with sharp finger-nails, all big and poofy, as though he was wearing a pillow. He also had un-natural sharp teeth as well.

"Don't think any of you pipsqueaks are going anywhere! I'm here for answers!" said the man in red.

"Who are you?" Rod asked.

To everyone's confusion, the man in red did some kind of strange karate pose, which was more like a stance like a drunken-prima-ballrina. Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Freya and Rod all glanced at each other, dumbfounded at this strange and comical acting man.

"Oookay...?" Rod said, "Weird."

"Wha-wha!? What do you mean 'weird'!?" demanded the man, feeling insulted.

Cloud blinked, muttering, "Never seen this guy before." before adding, "He looks like the most scariest clown ever, wearing a pillow." causing Tifa and Freya to giggle, and Barret and Rod snickering in agreement.

The guy in red was more insulted now, because he shouted angerily, "How dare you! I am Gilgamesh! Now, where is Bartz? I've just escaped the Rift to find him all over the universe!"

"The hell you talkin' about?" Barret asked.

Freya then said to Gilgamesh, "Okay, look, none of us know what you're talking about, none of us know any 'Bartz' and this Rift-thing in the universe is the most stupidest thing I've ever heard." starting to get irritated with the guy.

"D'oooh! I've misjudged my exit point again!" Gilgamesh grumbled, "I don't have time for any of you anywho."

With that, he uttered, "Good-day!" before stomping off into another tunnel, until he wasn't seen anymore.

The group stood there, pondering on what the hell they just witnessed. Finally, Tifa broke the silence by saything, "That was very disturbing."

"I'll say." Cloud agreed, "That was the most creepiest guy I've ever seen."

"No s***, captain obvious." Rod muttered sarcastically.

Just then, a bunch of Malbo(or whatever) approached from deep within the tunnels, startling the group, and growled at them for a massive kill.

"Hmph. Guess we're not leaving so soon." Cloud muttered as he draws out his Fusion swords, Tifa got into a fighting-stance, Barret powered up his gun-arm, Rod pulled out his EMR and Freya brought out her rifle, getting it ready as well. The group knew that they had no choice but to fight.

Immediately they charged. Tifa took care in two with her martial arts skills, punching and kicking powerfully at time, her usual style, grabbing one, throwing it into the air, before leaping up and finishing it off by smacking it onto the ground, doing the same with the other one, and once her two opponents were killed, she landed safely on the ground.

Freya and Barret both shot repeatedly at three other of the monsters, and since Freya was the greatest hunter of the Turks, this was a piece of cake for her. For Barret, since his gun was a machine-gun, it took care of the monsters by just moving his gun-arm.

Rod, having taught the EMR and martial arts skills from Reno, as well as havign self-taught himself in street fighting during his time in the Slums and in Junon, took care of the two monsters with ease, shouting, "Take this, scum-bags!"

As for Cloud, he leaped, slashed, jumped, sliced, smacked, materia-used powered, slashed even more, and killed five monsters on his own. He ran along the walls before jumping off and sliced another monster's head off, and then leaped into the air and heavily jumped down in a fatal down-stab at another one right into the skull, before jumping off, spinning in the air and landed safely on the ground once again.

"Let's go!" Cloud shouted, and the others followed him out so that they wouldn't have to handle any more opponents and get the hell out of Nibelhiem as soon as possible, considering that they didn't want to run into any more trouble then they had do today, though they knew that they had to fight in some point. Thank gaia it wasn't against DeepGround for now, but they were not out of the woods yet.

* * *

Meanwhile, having been meaning to go to Nibelhiem to find answers about DeepGround as well as the past connecting to Hojo and Lucrecia, Vincent, having recovered and saving WRO from Azul and Shelke who was Shalua's missing younger sister, and apparently experimented on at a young age, and now, the ex-Turk was in the helicopter, and after hearing about what Reeve was telling him on his PHS, the silent gun-man couldn't help but think about his former lover.

'She was...researching something back then.' Vincent thought to himself, as he recalled back when he was younger and a Turk, he noticed a strange glowing materia on Lucrecia's desk while talking to her at one stage during his final assignment.

'What were you involved in? What was tormenting you?...Lucrecia...' He asked silently. He then looked at the WRO pilot and asked, "Where are we?"

"Just over towards Junon." says the Pilot, but all of the sudden, to his horror, a bunch of flying monsters appeared, surrounding the chopper, and tragically, the pilot was pulled out and fallen to his death, causing the chopper to spin out of control and still attacked.

Vincent, with no other choice, quickly got up and opened the side door, taking out his gun-cerberus- and fired at the incoming monsters that attempted to kill him next. This just wasn't his day this year. So much for the peace in the world since Sephiroth's third demise(and hopefully he won't be returning ever again). Though Vincent had a feeling that this time it won't be Cloud who would save the world. The ex-Turk didn't have any idea that his blonde-spiky-haired friend was aware of the situation that was happening in the world right and hoped that Cloud, Tifa and all of his friends were alright.

Just when Vincent thought he killed off the monsters, suddenly another crashed in behind him, grabbed hold of him and despite his attempts to break free from the hold, was pulled out of the now falling and flaming chopper. Thinking quickly, Vincent called upon one of his demons inside his body and allowed the Galian Beast to take over his body, but Vincent was still in control, because he then grabbed hold of the monster, before throwing it to the ground below, killing it instantly. Just as the beast landed, the chopper crashed and was now up in flames.

As for Vincent, he transformed back into his human form, and, as if nothing happened to him, just walks off while stylishly throwing back his mantle, knowing that he'll have to make the rest of the way to his destination on foot and boat, which means that he'll have to head over to Junon, the place where the DeepGround kidnapping began.

* * *

Despite that Reno wanted to pilot the chopper to Banora where Rufus, Tseng, Elena and the rest of the former Turks were, Rude pointed out that the redhead was still exhausted, and that Cissnei and Haruto should take over in flying for now so that Reno could catch up on more sleep, despite him repeatedly saying, "I'm fine." though he yawned a bit, feeling totally exhausted.

In the end, the redhead lost and while grumbling about it, was lying down on the seats in the back, trying to stay awake and focus, but the ride in the chopper was pleasent for him, and was drifting him off to sleep, as though he was a young infant being rocked gently back and forth by his mother in those rocking-beds again.

"I don't get why I'm tired." Reno muttered, starting another conversation with Rude who looked at him, as Reno continued, "I had a nap in WRO and I was okay before Cloud and the others left for Nibelhiem."

"I think you're restless because of the nightmares." Rude figured.

Reno rolled his eyes, "It ain't fair that I don't get to fly the chopper. I'm the best helicopter pilot in history!"

"Just go to sleep. I'll wake you when we arrive." Rude scolded.

Grumbling again, Reno muttered an 'You're sounding like my mother' before closing his eyes, and recutnately allowed sleep to take over his mind, and he was out like a light.

It wasn't until an hour later, that a snoring Reno, for once not having a nightmare, was being shaken awake by his partner, before the redhead softly cursed and grumbled for having to have been taken away from his pleasent sleep that he hasn't had in weeks, before blinking his eyes open irritatedly, saying, "I-I'm up, I'm up." pushing himself up into sitting position, as Rude helped him stand up.

"How did you sleep?" asked the taller man.

"Fine until you woke me." Reno replied, "And I was having a nice dream for once."

"Sorry."

Reno sighed, shaking his head, saying, "Nah, it's cool. Since we're here, might as well get it over with and report to Rufus and Tseng."

* * *

"Hmm...I thought as much." Rufus frowned deeply after Reno gave his report about the situation.

"It would explain the disappearence." Tseng thought, "Though, the question is...why?"

"If anyone can solve this, it's Reeve, Cloud and the others." Rufus said, "Plus, WRO would want us to stay out of the way, despite that we should be the ones to clean up this mess that my father left behind."

Elena sounded troubled as she asked, "You don't think...Hojo has something to do with it?"

Everyone else looked at her, before Reno shrugged and replied, "Wouldn't surprise me since Proffessor Creep-show was sick enough to do something like this. On the other hand, all he cared about was experiment this, and experiment that, maybe even destroying the world just for science."

"I agree. Even I never liked that man." Haruto nodded.

"Who did?" Reno smirked, though he knew that the late President, Scarlet and Hediegger were the many few who trusted Hojo in the past, which was sadly true, but the good news was, all four of them are dead and ancient history now.

"There's also something we should look into." Tseng interrupted, "Considering that we're were for now, we should investigate the ruins of this place."

"What for?" Reno asked, curiously, as Elena walked up to him and showed him a piece of paper.

"This is why." said the youngest Turk.

The red-haired Turk took the paper and read it, blinking in surprise as he realised what Tseng and Elena were talking about. "Genesis was here?"

"Genesis? Why would he be here?" Cissnei asked, "I thought he was dead."

"Maybe he died here and not in Gongaga, since he's the only one crazy enough to go on and on about that LOVELESS s***." Reno replied, as he realised at this act of LOVELESS was possibly what Genesis thought the fifth and final act that was missing was meant, though to him, it made no sense what so ever.

Rufus then said, "Reno, Rude, both of you are to investigate the pathway while the rest of you see for any clues around this area, just in case DeepGround are around." while looking at the path that leads to formerly the factory of Banora before it was destroyed a long time ago.

The Turks looked at the path, and suddenly Reno felt that something wasn't right.

Something that made him feel...scared.

* * *

**Reno: Who the hell is Gilgamesh?**

**Tashasaurous: He's from Final Fantasy V, and he made other appearences, like, well, you guys wouldn't know, but I do, and so do the viewers! Nice surprise, huh?**

**Vincent: I see that you also included me without my unconscious form.**

**Tashasaurous: What can I say? I'm doing my best here. Now, if you please.**

**Cloud: Don't forget to review and tell the author what you all think so far.**

**Genesis: Look forward for more chapters in the future.**

**Reno: I'm not gonna like the next chapter one bit.**

**Cloud: Speak for yourself, Reno.**

**Tashasaurous: Now now, guys. Okay, let's go to sleep since it's past my bed-time! T-T-F-N: Ta-ta for now! ;)**


	8. Rescue and the Goddess-Cure

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. Trying to come up with ideas for a story on my own like this that is not real is very complicated.**

**Cloud: She can easily write stories in a novel-like fanfic way like everyone else from games, movies, ect, but coming up with ideas on her own is not easy.**

**Reno: Especially since she likes to read the beginning and the end.**

**Vincent: Perhaps we all should go easy on her.**

**Genesis: Indeed. Afterall, she reminds me of the Goddess.**

**Tashasaurous: Guys, you're all so sweet. Okay, let's move on, and remember, I don't own Final Fantasy VII or it's characters. Those rights belong to Square Enix.**

* * *

Chapter Eight: Rescue and the Goddess-Cure.

Having just made it back to their van, Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Freya and Rod were greeted by a weird sight. A person in a ragged cloak stood there, waiting for them, and the person saw them and smiled, and waved at them as if he/she knew them.

"Hey, guys!" the person greeted, the voice giving away that it was a young woman, and somehow, she sounded very familiar. Cloud and the others glanced at each other in confusion.

The blonde-haired man then turned back to the girl and asked, "Who are you?"

"Allow me to introduce myself!" The girl began, "In a distance paths which are meant to be met again, there's only one who can bring a great reunion!" and then she threw off her cape, to reveal none other than...

"Yuffie Kisaragi!" Yuffie continued, smiling beamly like she always did, now 19 years old, and once again wore a different kind of ninja clothes, which were black, purple and a bit of yellow, which suited her just as her two previous garments had did from the past three years.

The others just stared, then Cloud smiled and replied, "Hey, Yuffie. Didn't know you came by so quickly."

Yuffie, feeling insulted by this, pouted, "Hey, what's that supposed to mean!?"

"It's just that we thought you couldn't get here due to DeepGround." Tifa answered before Cloud got the chance to speak again.

"Those punks? Ugh, I hate those guys! I have no idea what they're doing, but enough is enough already." Yuffie grumbled.

"How'd you know?" Barret asked.

The young ninja smiled, "Reeve called and asked me if I could lend in a hand. Since I was on my way to Nibelhiem since I kinda felt that something was wrong, when news came up about those weird guys in the blue glowing suits, so, I decided to come here and investigate."

"There's nothing much there, except for Deepground troops all over the place, even in the ShinRa manor." Cloud stated.

This was when Freya approached and her eyes widened. "Yuffie? Is that you?" which confused the others, until the youngest woman looked at her and her eyes widened as she recongised the Turk. "You! What are you doing here?" Yuffie asked, almost accusingly.

"Long story, and don't worry, I'm no longer with ShinRa. The other former Turks including myself are helping out in the Deepground crisis." Freya explained, holding a hand up to ensure the girl that she's alright, before admitting, "Man, you sure grew up very quickly."

"Former Turks? Did you guys get kicked out or something?" Yuffie asked, after a moment since she realised quickly that Freya and Rod are no longer full-time Turks despite the uniforms. On the other hand, Rufus and the Turks were no longer enemies and the young ninja was getting used to them.

"It's a long story." Freya shifted uncomfortably.

"You knew Yuffie too?" Cloud asked, surprised.

The lady Turk giggled and replied, "I met her when I was sent to Wutai a long time ago. She was eleven years old at the time, and even asked me to help her hunt for Materia."

"How is it that you know Cloud, Zack, Barret, Tifa, Aerith and now Yuffie? Who's next, that talking red dog?" Rod grumbled.

"Yeah, I met Nanaki too." Freya sheepishly answered. She then shrugged and said, "Small world, I guess."

Yuffie and the others were stunned by this, before the young ninja inquired, "So lemme get this straight. You knew the seven of us before we even knew eachother more than three years ago? But then you left the Turks and disappeared until now?"

"Blame Rufus's old man for that." Rod sighed, "He wanted us killed even if we saved the world from a big-a** summon that has the power to destroy the entire world if it was complete. If it wasn't for Rufus, there'd be no Turks left and those who were related to us would mostly likely be hunted down and killed!"

"Rufus saved you?"

"Well...again, long story, but yeah, from what we heard from Reno, Rufus convinced his father to allow the Turks to continue, even if Tseng, Reno and Rude were the only ones left and the rest of us had to go into hiding since we didn't want to work for ShinRa anymore, and were reported either dead or M.I.A." Freya explained. "We came back to help in evacuate Midgar, though, during meteorfall."

There was a moment a pause, until Yuffie realised that things had changed a lot, and, considering how Freya did save her life back then despite being with ShinRa, she also now felt bad for shouting like she did years ago, not to mention that it was Hojo and Rufus's father who were both the real monsters of the world. The Turks; they were just taking orders and hid their human-emotions to protect themselves and each other, no matter how hard it was.

"Well, even though it's probably too late now," Yuffie began, awkwardly, "Sorry for shouting at you like that, Freya."

Freya smiled and shook her head, "It's okay, Yuffie, I really understand why you were upset. I'd be too if I were in your shoes. Besides, it's the Deepground punks that we have to worry about now, right?"

"I'll say!" Yuffie giggled, "So, no hard feelings?"

"Nah, we're cool." Freya nodded. "Anyway, we should head back. Who knows what Reeve managed to find out and what the next plan is."

"You guys go ahead. I'm sticking around for a bit to find more clues on my own." Yuffie says as she picks up her cloak and proceeds in putting it back on so that the bad guys wouldn't know what she looks like.

"You sure it's okay to be here by yourself with a bunch of these glowing-suited freaks?" Rod asked a bit worriedly.

Yuffie smirked at the redhead, pointing out, "I'm Wutai's greatest Ninja! Those punks won't ever know what came to them."

Cloud nodded in agreement, "She can take care of herself. Besides, she helped out in defeating Sephiroth three years ago, and in fighting against that summon in Edge last year."

"She even defeated her own father, which proves that she can do it." Tifa added.

"Not the mention that the kid's fast too." Barret hated to admit it.

Freya grinned, "Just goes to show you boys that us girls can be just as tough as guys are. Besides, I'm the greatest hunter of the Turks, since married life and being rich isn't my kind of thing."

"Hey, me too!" Yuffie added in delighted surprise.

"Wait a minute...You're Wutai's...Princess!?" Rod asked, finally realising why the last name Kisaragi sounded so familiar. It was same name as Godo Kisaragi, the Emperor of Wutai who surrendered the war years ago. To think that the emperor had a daughter who was now a materia hunter and a ninja, not to mention wandering around in this situation and a friend of Cloud and the others was...shocking.

Freya, Yuffie, Tifa and even Cloud and Barret laughed at Rod, with Freya smirking and saying, "Took you long enough. Clueless as always."

"Man...seriously, being rich sucks. I'm so glad that I was a leader of a gang before I messed up in stealing a bike, Reno kicked my ass and arrested me, before Veld decided to make me a Turk." Rod sighed. He then looked at Freya and muttered, "No wonder you guys get on so well; so damn alike and ran away for a good quality life."

"We both had our reasons, thanks." Freya pointed out. "Me, I always wanted to become a Turk, but in order to do so and avoid a boring married life, I ran away."

"In my case, I wanted to hunt down Materia to restore Wutai to it's former glory." Yuffie added.

Rod looked at her and muttered, "I like your reason better. Besides, I kinda wanted to see the real Wutai, not some cheesy resort."

"I think we should get going since we're wasting time here." Cloud decided to say, wanting to break up the tensed situation between the the Turks and the female Ninja.

They agreed on this one, and after they told Yuffie to be careful, Cloud and the others went back to the van and drove off, while Yuffie, now feeling the bad feeling in her gut getting worse, silently passed the Deepground soldiers towards the ShinRa manor, the feeling getting more worse, until when she went up to the building, she heard gun-fire, metal exploding, and as she got closer to find out what was going on, she slipped into a window and into the creepy building where not only she and her freinds found Vincent Valentine inside a coffen three years ago, but also where Cloud and Zack were both kept in for four years after the Nibelhiem incident no thanks to Hojo and Sephiroth.

To her horror, as she looked from the second floor, below the ground and in front of the entrance, was a familiar man in red, and was an unfamiliar woman in red(hair, clothing and eyes), and she had her hand RIGHT into the man's chest, the man grunting in shocking agony, before pulling out a strange energy-like materia and the man fell to the ground face first, the sick woman grinning evily.

'Vincent!' Yuffie screamed out in her head, horrified that her friend, the one whom she secretly slowly fell in love with(if anyone found out that she's attracted to a 60 year old guy in a 27 year old man's body, she'll die in embarrassment), was easily knocked out by a sick woman, having a materia inside his body, and on top of everything else, as she watched, Vincent's body was glowing red. The ninja realised that, against strange odds which she couldn't figure out how or why, that the materia that was inside Vincent's body somehow allowed him to contain the monster which he was slowly transforming now.

As Yuffie witnessed the horrible sight, Chaos seemed to have trouble like Vincent was inside the body, before it turned back into Vincent who remained on the ground, unconscious. The female ninja wanted to cry, believing that the ex-Turk was now dead. But she had to hold in her emotions, for the shake of all of her friends, including Vincent. Out of all of them, Yuffie was pretty much closer to Vincent and Nanaki. She was once close to Aerith before the latter had died.

'No, don't think about that.' Yuffie scolded herself for remembering Aerith's death. 'Vincent needs you!'

"So, you cannot control the beast without this." The woman in red spoke to the 'corpse' of Vincent while looking at the materia, before chuckling and said, "Well, there will be no need for it when I'm done with you."

This was enough for Yuffie. In anger and bravery, Yuffie quickly ran down the stairs and threw her shuriken at the woman who cried out in surprise and back away from Vincent. The weapon spins around until it lands on the floor, and thanks to the disappearing Materia Yuffie installed into it earlier, it gave her enough time to pick up her weapon and then with her all might, carry Vincent on her back and used her materia to teleport herself and her friend back outside for safety, and the last thing she heard was the woman shouting, "Wutai-flea!"

* * *

Once outside and having gotten away far enough from the town of nightmares, Yuffie layed Vincent on the ground, taking her hood off and checked the man's injury. A deep and large hole in his chest was shown and it was still bleeding. It was close to his heart, and Yuffie, unable to believe what just happened, not wanting to believe that her friend was dead, begged, "Vince? Vincent! C'mon, Vincent, wake up!" her voice full of tears. "Please wake up!"

But there was no response. In tears, Yuffie threw herself into Vincent's shoulder and sobbed, hugging the man's unconscious body and cried. This couldn't be happening. Not to Vincent! He was supposed to be immortal!

Suddenly, something strange happened. As Yuffie was crying, the hole in Vincent's chest suddenly glowed, catching the girl's attention. Her sobs softening into silence, she slowly rose her head and her eyes widened in awe as the wound began to close itself, until it completely disappeared as if it was never there. Then there was as sharp inhale that came from Vincent. Yuffie looked up to the man's face, seeing that the man was gasping in sharp pain, before slipping back into a now peaceful-ish sleep.

Realising what had happened, despite that the weird materia no longer inside Vincent's body, Yuffie shakily sighed in relief, before resting her head onto Vincent's shoulder again, finding herself unwanting to depart from her friend. She knew now, it was up to her to keep Vincent safe, to get him back to safety. Remembering this, she pulled out her PHS and dialed the number she wanted to call. It was long way back to WRO, but a pick-up ride would do the trick.

"**This is Commissor Reeve of WRO**." Reeve's voice answered.

"Reeve, it's Yuffie! I need a trip back to WRO, now!" Yuffie quickly said.

"**What happened?**"

"It's Vincent, he's been knocked out."

After a gasp of horror, Reeve then replied, "**Don't worry, I'll send in help as fast as I can. You stay with Vincent**."

After the phone call, Yuffie turned back to Vincent and whispered to the sleeping man, "Don't worry, Vince. It'll be okay."

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Banora, Reno and Rude followed the path down towards the area where the warehouse once stood, and to the Turks, it wasn't a pretty sight.

"This is giving me the creeps." Reno muttered.

"There's a tunnel leading deep in the ground." Rude noticed as he looked down and saw a hole leading to where he just mentioned.

Reno took notice of this as well, and with the small sparks of the Lifestream forming into the air as well, it was just as creepy as he thought. Despite this, the Turks glanced at each other and nodded, knowing what to do. It was a hard descent down, but the men safely landed, and then entered the tunnel, which was, again, creepy. They noticed two paths that diverted down different paths. They checked the right one first, and they were greeted with a weird sight.

In the end of a small path was a desk, a lamp and a chair, with photos and a small book. It was a like a private office, and suddenly Reno and Rude put the two and two together.

It must be Genesis' childhood secret hideout. The desk had Banora white juice cans, photos and even awards. The photos held both Genesis and Angeal when they were both younger; possibly in their mid-teens.

"Pity that those two had to go and do something stupid which were related to the sick experiments, since they had a decent life here, huh?" Reno thought, and as he looked at the photos, he actually felt sorry for the two late 1st Class SOLDIERs. He once recalled trying out the Banora White Juice years ago and when he first met Genesis and questioned about it's delicious taste, the SOLDIER was quite pleased that Reno loved it and said that the fruit itself is even tastier.

"Reno, there's a book here." Rude spoke up, holding a book which had Genesis' name in it.

Reno went over to see what his partner was reading, then snatched the book out of the taller man's hands to have a read himself, and he was amazed at what was written.

"_First Prize: Banora White Juice._

_Proceeded foods Category, National Agriculture Awards._

_Genesis' comments; I am very honored. Banora White Juice tastes great, but the fruit itself is quite tasty as well. My dream is for my parents and me to serve the hero Sephiroth our apples one day. Since we're close in age, I would like to show him what I've accomplished in my Life._"

"Man. Makes me remember the time when I was a teen." Reno thought, "You'd forget how weird they are."

Rude nodded in agreement, before the two decided to investigate the left path and the Turks were very careful in traversing their way through, and the feeling Reno had was getting worse. They found another entrance and an elevator which were covered in moss and grass, and the door was obviously left open for quite sometime.

"Into the belly of the beast, huh?" Reno joked.

"And out of the demon's ass." Rude joked back, earning a chuckle from his redheaded partner.

The two of them then entered the dead-end of the cave with spikes and a broken statue of what it looked like a woman, with a large ball that resembled to a Materia in the centre of the cave, on a vine-like tall rock. On the ground was the face of the statue that broke off about four years ago.

Curious, Reno went up closer to the rock, and looked at the face on the ground, bend down and picked it up, furrowing his brows in confusion. It somehow looked...familair.

Suddenly, Reno felt dizzy, and the next thing he knew, he blacked out.

_When he opened his eyes, the Turk discovered that he wasn't in the cave and his partner was no where to be found. Reno looked around, and realised he was surrounded by the Lifestream. Sensing a pressence behind him, Reno turned and his eyes widened in awe._

_There stood a blonde woman, in magnificent white and yellow armor, with a shield and a lance in her hands, blue eyes and a strange, bulky but beaufitul tiara on her head._

_Reno blinked in sheer fear and amazement. Never in his life that he'd seen a woman as beautiful as the one in front of him. Was she an ancient, like Aerith? Or something much, much more? He didn't know, and, despite that the woman seemed gentle, he didn't want to risk in speaking, feeling scared that talking would somehow anger her._

_As if reading his mind, the woman nodded, and her hands glittered in light, and suddenly Reno felt himself feeling better, as if the nightmares he had for the past weeks were...vanishing._

"Reno? Reno!"

Snapping his eyes open, Reno blinked as he looked at Rude who was now holding him. The redhead realised he was in a lying positon and that he must've passed out from a strange dream.

"That was...strange." Reno muttered, thinking about the dream.

"You alright?" asked Rude.

Reno looked at his friend, and nodded, sitting up on his own. "Yeah, I'm fine." then noticed something behind his friend, and blinked. There stood a crimson sword and he realised what it meant.

This was where Genesis possibly fell, and Reno realised who the woman he saw in his dream was. Someone whom Reno dismissed as part of Loveless.

The Goddess herself.

* * *

**Tashasarous: Whoa, I had to break it up here, but don't worry, it's not the end yet. More shall be revealed. By the way, did you like the movie quote that I put in?**

**Cloud: Where did that come from?**

**Tashasaurous: The belly of the beast and demon part? The first Lara Croft movie. Pretty good action. Anyway, guys, please review before you go. My stories depend on it...Uh, Cloud? Where are Reno, Genesis and Vincent?**

**Cloud: *notices the three said men playing a game of cards* Playing Poker, I think.**

**Reno: Rummy!**

**Genesis and Vincent: *Groan***

**Cloud: Rummy?**

**Tashasarous: What? It's a card game that I sometimes play alot with my parents. It's the only card game that I like. Anyway, we should get going and look out for the next chapter.**


	9. Nero and Cloud's Decision

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: I should've mentioned this in the last chapter, but to avoid confusion, the Goddess has cleansed Reno from the nightmares of Omega, so, he's okay now. And so will the others...oops, I might've put in spoilers. My bad.**

**Reno: I'm really grateful to her, actually. I didn't think that would happen.**

**Cloud: Shall we continue?**

**Vincent: I appreciate Yuffie saving my life.**

**Genesis: It seems women are tailing you three but none for me.**

**Tashasaurous: Hey, you were cured by the Goddess four years ago, don't complain! Anyway, I don't own Final Fantasy VII or it's characters. Those rights belong to Square Enix.**

* * *

Chapter Nine: Nero and Cloud's Decision.

As they were just were driving their way back towards WRO, Cloud couldn't stop thinking about of what he just witnessed in his mind. Why were Zack's memories interfering his mind again? Why had Genesis make Sephiroth go all crazy? It made no sense at all. The blonde spiky-haired man wished he could ask his late best friend about this.

'Maybe it was Zack that made me keep going.' Cloud thought to himself. He then thought about this Angeal who was once Zack's mentor and friend.

To think that the older man had been experimented on, lied through his life, having unknowingly brought an innocent young man who wanted to become a hero into the deadly scentific conflict, which in the end, brought Cloud himself unknowingly into the situation, Angeal requested his pupil to kill him, the same pupil who risked his freedom to keep everyone safe, encouraged Cloud quite a lot which made the blonde feel more open, until Sephiroth discovered what he thought was the truth of his origins and became crazy, Hojo got his disgusting hands on Zack and Cloud, Zack, being stronger, broke out and got himself and Cloud out, until finally, just outside of Midgar, he sacrificed himself to save Cloud and passed down his legacy to him and that's when the real war began.

'It's all the scientests fault.' the blonde thought angerily. 'Why did Hojo and Hollender and the late President Shinra have to exist?'

"Zack was a really sweet guy, you know." Freya's voice broke him out of his thoughts, as he looked at her, questionly, only to see that she held a bit of sadness and guilt on her expression.

"Huh?"

The former lady Turk smiled a little, continuing, "Playful, and tough, but also the leader-ish type, and for some reason, even some of the toughest and most stern guys like him as a friend. He made some of our lives more easier."

Cloud thought about it, then smiled and agreed, "Yeah. I remember that I first met him after we crashed landed in the mountains near Modeahiem years ago. Tseng was there, and he mentioned that Zack was used to that kind of terrian."

"What did Zack say?" Tifa spoke up, now joining in and curious herself. Rod and Barret were in the drivers seats.

"Zack's reply was that he was the country boy." Cloud chuckled a little. "Even though we were a little stuck, he was optimistic and made out the good point that we were all in one piece and that it'll be alright."

Freya giggled, "Yeah, always the optimist."

"You and Zack got a little ahead of Tseng, didn't you?" Tifa couldn't help but ask.

Cloud smirked, "Pretty much. I guess that's what happens when you don't go outside or to other places in the world that much, or that you weren't born in the country. When Zack and I first talked to each other, we both knew about the Mako Reactor outside of Midgar, and that then, we quickly became friends." he smiled at the memory, thankful that he still has some good memories of his past.

"It's a bit weird how you both had spiky hair," Freya admitted, "If I didn't know any better, you two would make the weirdest brothers."

Cloud blushed in shock at this, while Tifa giggled, but then suddenly the truck jerked violently, and they could hear both Rod and Barret curse and swear as the van suddenly came to a stop. Wondering what was going on, the trio opened the back doors and jumped out to see what was happening. As they got out, Barret and Rod were already out of the car, weapons ready, and with a good reason.

In front of the van, was a mysterious man with metal wings, a mask and he was strangely surrounded by a cloud of black mist. It was very unusual, but Cloud and his friends were not taking any chances, as they already figured that the guy was a member of Deepground, or possibly the Tviests.

"I have been waiting to meet you, Cloud Strife." says the man, who is none other than Nero.

The blonde-haired man tensed, before taking out his fusion swords, and the others got into fighting stances, just in case. "Who are you? And what do you want with me?" Cloud demanded.

"I am Nero; Nero the Stable of the Tviests." Nero replied before continuing, "And a couple of souls would do. You being the strongest before you had fought against the great Sephiroth. However, what we really want, is not you, Cloud Strife, but your friend; Vincent Valentine, the keeper of the Protomateria."

"Protomateria?" Tifa asked slowly.

Rod quirked an eye brow, asking, "What the f*** is a Protomateria?"

"Why would Vincent have anything like that?" Cloud asked.

Nero just laughed, "So many questions. Ah yes, even Valentine does not know that his body held the key in controlling not only what we want, but also keeping the beast inside him contained."

'Chaos...' Cloud thought, 'This guy's talking about Chaos inside Vincent.' while he had no idea what the Protomateria really is, but he then realised that it must've been the reason why Vincent had full-ish control over every single demons Hojo implanted inside him.

"...'the hell you talkin' about!?" Barret shouted.

"Perhaps my darkness will erase your memories, and I'll be starting with a match." Nero chuckled, as suddenly a wave of darkness shot our from underneath him, zooming towards the others who all gasped in stunned horror.

"Look out!" Cloud shouted as he, Tifa, Rod, Freya and Barret all jumped out of the way, narrowly escaping from being swallowed by the darkness. Unfortunately, Nero shot out a second one and this time, Tifa was caught, just as she screamed out in horror before being caught, and the others noticed in horror.

"Tifa!" Cloud screamed, and without thinking, got up and jumped right into the dark sphere to try and save his friend. Freya, Rod and Barret could not believe what just happened, and they turned to glare at Nero who chuckled again, finding their reactions amusing.

"Now they will never be seen again, not even in the Lifestream, but no matter." Nero says, "The end is near, and soon, all life shall cease to exist."

This made Freya so angry. This couldn't be happening. First Zack died, and then Aerith, and now Cloud and Tifa were gone! What will the others say about this? What will happen to the children-Denzel, Katie and Marlene? How will they cope for the loss of their parental-guardians? In anger, the lady-Turk slowly rose to her feet, her shotgun in her hands, death-anger glaring at Nero who wasn't affected by this at all.

"You...You monster!" Freya screamed as she took aim and fired, but Nero used his wings to block the attack and fired bullets back at her, but Freya dodged, and Rod quickly raced forwards and tried to attack the tviest with his EMR and the martial arts skills he learned from Reno, but he wasn't getting anywhere. Barret then aimed and fired multiable bullets at Nero, and while Nero was busy blocking them, Freya got behind him and then fired at his back, finally catching him off-guard.

Stunned, Nero didn't pay attention as he tried to look at Freya, only for Rod to leap into the air and then kicked the tviest square in the face, sending him into the wall, before the redhead landed on the ground safely.

* * *

Tifa was falling, falling into an never-ending darkness. She didn't know how long she was falling, but she didn't know where she was or how she got here. She remembered being swallowed into the darkness. Tifa also thought that she heard Cloud scream out her name, but everything else was like this.

She was scared. This reminded her of when she and Cloud both fell into the Lifestream back in Mideel three years ago, and she could hear terrible voices in her mind saying things to her, and she tried to block it, but it was no use. Now...

They were back. The voices. Saying horrible words to her. Tifa crouched, covered her ears with her hands, shutting her eyes tightly, begging the voices to stop, as a mist of darkness began to float towards her, before they began to cover her up, starting with her legs.

"No...No! Cloud! Barret! Anyone! Help me!" Tifa screamed as the darkness crept up to her waist, slowly devouring her. Tears began to fall as she started to cry.

* * *

Cloud tried to find Tifa, but it was impossible. The moment he jumped in, his head started to hurt. He didn't think that this would happen. No matter how hard he tried, Cloud felt himself fading, and dark memories of Sephiroth began to re-haunt his mind, and he wanted them to stop. Eventually...he began to lose consciousness...

'Tifa...everyone...I'm sorry.'

"_Cloud! Don't give in!_" a familiar voice cried out.

"_C'mon, Cloud! Fight it!_" another familiar voice cried out.

Both of those voices sounded familiar. It couldn't be...could it? Cloud opened his eyes, and saw light shining above him, and two familiar figures hovering there like angels. As Cloud's vision began to return, his eyes widened as he realise who they were, and once again, they were helping him in spirit from the Lifestream.

Aerith and Zack.

"_Cloud, you shouldn't let this get to you_." said Aerith, "Everyone needs you and Vincent."

Zack then added, "_You can get through this! Try and think about Tifa!_"

Tifa!

Realising this, Cloud nodded, and the darkness around him vanished, and as he looked around, below him, as the very person he wanted to save, slowly being consumed by the darkness. Cloud dove down towards her.

"TIFA!" he screamed out.

Tifa, almost consumed, heard his voice, and when she opened her eyes, she saw light and Cloud descending, out-stretching his hand towards her. Realising this, Tifa reached out and both of them grabbed each others hands, as Cloud pulled her towards him and he held her onto his chest, the darkness around her vanishing as well. The two embraced, and Cloud allowed Tifa to cry onto his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her to comfort her.

"Tifa..." Cloud whispered, "It'll be alright." he remembered that, although he did it mostly on his own, Cloud had the spirital help from Tifa who saved him from his mental imprisonment. Now it was his turn to save her.

Now it was the matter of escaping.

"C'mon. Let's get home." Cloud suggested.

* * *

Nero stood up easily, much to the shock of Freya, Barret and Rod, who then returned to fighting stances, and careful not to fall into the darkness like Cloud and Tifa both had.

However, just as Nero was about to say something, the darkness acted up again, and as everyone looked, to their shock and surprise, Cloud jumped out with Tifa in his arms, and the darkness behind them vanished without a trace, and Cloud glared at Nero who was just as shocked as the others. It was impossible! No one has ever escaped from his darkness before!

Then Nero went back to normal and says, "Oh, so you escaped? Well, maybe next time you won't be so lucky. I know now that you and that other red-haired Turk are a waste of time. It is Vincent who is the real prize."

"Wait, what!?" Rod asked in shock, realising who the other redhead Nero was talking about. "What the hell does Reno have to do with this?"

"The Lifestream grants gifts to some people." Nero said, "I think you will understand soon enough." and with that, he disappeared into the darkness, confusing the others even more.

But they decided to worry about that later, as Tifa hugged Cloud again, whispering, "Thanks for saving me."

Cloud blushed, and admitted, "I was about to disappear too, but then Aerith and Zack helped me out again, from the Lifestream. You should really thank them."

"But you jumped in after me." Tifa pointed out. "Thank you."

The blond-haired man smiled, saying half-jokingly, "I wasn't late this time." though he wasn't late the last time he saved her and Denzel a year ago during the Edge crisis with the Bahamut-SIN that Kadaj summoned. Still, Tifa always wanted a hero to come and save her ever since she and Cloud were children.

"Hey, can't you two save your lovy-dovy stuff for later? We have a serious problem here." Rod interrupted, only to earn a smack on the back of the head by an annoyed Freya who shushed him.

"Shut up, Rod." Freya hissed.

"Ow!" Rod grumbled.

Barret went over to Cloud and Tifa and demanded, "Where the hell you both been?"

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you." Cloud replied. Then said, "Either way, we have to head back to WRO. Vincent and Reeve need all the help they can get. We can't let Deepground have their way any longer."

"Right. We have stop them." Tifa agreed.

The two former Turks approached and Freya asked, "What's the plan, then?"

Cloud thought for a moment, then as much as he hated the idea of cleaning up after Shinra's mess again, he knew that Rufus and the Turks had no chance against the Tviests, especially Nero. Plus, Reno seemed to be in danger as well, and he needed protection. Besides, as much as the redhead tried to hide it, all of the Turks were Reno's family.

He made his decision. "Freya, Rod. You guys head back to Rufus and the others. Tifa, Barret and I will head back to WRO to stop Deepground." Cloud said.

The others were shocked by this.

"No way! I wanna fight Deepground!" Freya protested.

"Yeah, me too!" Rod added.

"The Turks are not match against Deepground." Cloud pointed out, "I know you guys wanna help, but, maybe you can help in keeping every civilitions out of danger all over the world. It's the best you can do."

Despite that it wasn't what the two Turks wanted, Freya and Rod realised that Cloud made a good point. Plus, the Turks were no match against SOLDIER, and Deepground could only be defeated by WRO, and the former members of the second AVALANCHE.

"Okay. We'll meet up later. Just be careful." Freya finally said.

"Thanks." Cloud nodded.

With that, the group departed, and once Freya and Rod flew away in the chopper that was a spare, Barret, Cloud and Tifa made their way back, unaware of what's yet to come, but one thing's for certain, it wouldn't be Cloud who will save the world this time.

It was all up to Vincent.

* * *

Reno and Rude had returned to Rufus and the others with Genesis' sword and placed it near the burned out mansion as a memorial of the late SOLDIER, and after Reno explained about his mysterious dream, he found that Rude and Tseng no longer had the strange dreams either, since the redhead found that after his brief meeting with the mysterious goddess, that his nightmares of the giant WEAPON had vanished.

Not long after, Reno got a phonecall from Rod about what was about to happen, and once he reported it to Rufus, the young President ordered, "Well then, it's time for us to help in more evacuations. Let's hurry on to Wutai first, since I have a feeling that Deepground is there as well."

"Yes, sir!" All of the Turks and the former Turks saluted in reply.

As they all got ready to leave, Reno noticed Cissnei playing the 'Genesis-version' of Loveless and sticked it onto the hilt of the crimson sword, and actually felt sorry for the urban-haired young woman. He sighed, before feeling a hand placed onto his shoulder. Reno looked up and saw that it was Rude who nodded to him.

Reno knew what his friend was saying in silence. The look translated as 'It'll-be-alright.' and the redhead smiled and nodded back, thankful to have his best friend by his side. In fact, he was glad to have his 'family' with him again. He deeply missed them a lot, and he'll miss them again once this crisis was over.

"Well, back to work, back to work." said Reno in his trademark smirk. He followed his fellow Turks as Cissnei and Rude followed him and as they flew away towards their next destination to begin another evacuating mission, they knew, that the next mission will be challenging.

* * *

Driving back towards the WRO HQ, Yuffie, with her cloak on, sat waiting as Vincent was lying on the long seat, his clawed hand on his stomach. She was worried if the man wouldn't wake up, but she had to keep her cool.

Finally, after like five hours, Vincent made a groaning sound, and his eyes opened. Yuffie was relieved, and her usual-self kicked in again, to hide the fact that she was deeply worried...and had cried onto him earlier, which was embarrassing. She smiled underneath her hood, waved and greeted, "Morning!" as soon as his gaze went to her.

Weakly, Vincent asked, "Where..." before turning to Yuffie and, not recongizing her in the cloak, asked, "Who are you?"

Smirking, and deciding to have fun, Yuffie stood up, and replied, "Well, I'm glad you asked!" before turning away and began in a showing-off phrase, "I am the champion of the earth and the sky. I am the conqueror of evil. The single white rose of Wutai."

She then turned as she threw away her cloak to reveal herself, finishing, "Yuffie Kisaragi!" then she stands up on a chair, continuing, "Feast your eyes on-" but then she loses her balance, and though she tried to stop herself, she ended up falling backwards clumzingly, falling backwards and hits her head onto the computer parts of the wall, sitting on the keyboard, and she then clinged onto the back of her head, whining, "Owwww!" before rubbing it.

This wasn't her day.

"So, where are we?" Vincent asked calmly, having seen his young friend again.

"C'mon, aren't you at least a little concerned?" asked Yuffie, feeling annoyed now with Vincent's lack of concern.

The ex-Turk looked at her again, and replied calmly and stoic as usual, "Yuffie, it's been a while. How's your head?"

This made Yuffie even more annoyed, as she asked, "You... could you at least pretend to be sympathetic!?" as she muttered to herself in her mind, 'Ugh, men! No matter how old they are!' but then was alarmed when Vincent painfully tried to sit up.

Concerned and wanting her friend to take it easy, Yuffie leaped up and approached him, saying while waving her hands a 'nononono!', "Hey, take it easy. That was a big hole you had in your chest."

"A hole in my chest?" Vincent asked, puzzled, as he looked and found no trace of said hole his friend mentioned.

"I seriously thought you were a goner, but then the wound healed itself right up." Yuffie explained, then smiled and added, "You were always _"different,"_ but I guess that's why you're still breathing." then giggled.

Vincent, ignoring the giggle, asked curiously, "Yuffie, what are you doing here?"

"Me?" Yuffie asked, then remembered what she was doing and then answered, "I'm just helping out Reeve and his gang. I was poking around Nibelheim and I found you looking all corpselike in Shinra Manor. So I saved you."

Now that she thought of it, Cloud and Vincent weren't normally the ones needed to be rescued by anyone else, and Yuffie, althought was a powerful ninja, knew that she was under-ranked of the other two. The thought of her, being the youngest, rescuing the 'immortal' Vincent.

Grinning, she bragged on happily, feeling pleased with herself, "Imagine that-me, saving the great Vincent Valentine." then jokingly asked, "Do I get any thanks?" and giggles again.

To her surprise, Vincent thought that she was asking for a thank you seriously, and said, almost whispering and saying in appreciation, "Thanks, Yuffie." which caused the young woman to blush and made her feel a bit uncomfortable, her heart pounded again.

"No no no!" Yuffie said quickly, waving her hands, then admitted, "I didn't mean for you to take me so seriously." before turning away slight and rubbed the back of her head, smiling sheepishly. Okay, she fully admitted that she was deeply in love with Vincent, but she had to hide it to avoid more tension. Besides, romance can easily wait.

"Anyway..." Yuffie began again, changing the subject, "Reeve wanted us to contact him as soon as you woke up." and which she did.

The rest of the trip was eventfull and it will add something tragic.

* * *

**Tashasaurous: Now we're starting to come into the part where we all know about Shalua's comatose. Oh, and to lovely HappyGuest. Thank you for your review and support, you're a sweetie, and don't worry, I don't want to abandon this story. I plan on finishing it. It'll take sometime, but I will finish it eventually.**

**Cloud: You can check out her other stories by going up to her link with her name on it.**

**Reno: Literally...**

**Vincent and Genesis: Reno, shut up.**

**Tashasaurous: Anyway, I probably won't be back for a little bit, because it's my Birthday tomorrow(on the Tuesday), though it'll probably be the worst birthday ever.**

**Vincent: Why's that?**

**Tashasaurous: My parents were supposed to clean up our fish-tanks, but Mum got sick, we had people come in for the floor boards, a plummer to fix up the shower, and I probably have to help clean the fish-tanks myself. Some birthday this is gonna be.**

**Cloud: Sorry about that. I'm sure it'll work out.**

**Reno: Yeah, we all have to work on our birthdays. I always work on mine, but I go the pub with Rude afterwards.**

**Cloud: Other than the achohol, just try and have a good day tomorrow.**

**Vincent: It'll be alright.**

**Genesis: Indeed. After all, you are the Goddess of this story.**

**Tashasaurous: Thanks, guys. Anyway, I'll be back as soon as I can, so, look out for more chapters in the future.**


	10. Grimoire Valentine's Past

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: I should warn you guys that this chapter will get emotional. I almost cried writing this chapter.**

**Cloud: Try telling that to Genesis.**

**Genesis: *sobbing* This is a very sad chapter!**

**Reno: We haven't even started yet and you're crying?**

**Vincent: Would you like to continue?**

**Tashasaurous: Thanks, Vince. I don't own anything from Final Fantasy VII. All rights belong to Square Enix.**

* * *

Chapter Ten: Grimoire Valentine's Past.

Within the Lifestream where all life circles around, ready to either be born or return here once they are ready to die, Aerith, having exhausted herself for using her mental energy to for herself and Zack to make contact with Cloud and Marlene and to rescue Tifa and as many people as they could who were swallowed up by Nero's darkness, which, in their opinion, was just as worse as death itself. As Aerith found out from her mother, Nero's darkness prevents those he swallowed return to the Lifestream. Unless he dies, those people are doomed to cease to exist.

For now, she collasped into Zack's arms, falling asleep, much to the former SOLDIER's worry. He cradled her in his arms, whispering, "Aerith, take it easy. Cloud and the others will save the world again. That I promise."

"You shouldn't waste your time in making a promise that will never be kept." a familiar, annoyingly high-pitched voice spoke out evilly, startling Zack who looked up, and from the mist of the tainted lifestream, approached an old man in a lab coat and glasses, which Zack never wanted to see again, as the old man was the one who ruined many lives through out the years.

"It's not like YOU can do anything, Hojo." Zack hissed. "You're not Sephiroth."

Hojo just laughed, "Is my failed experiment still angry for what I did to subject C?"

"My name is Zack, and Cloud isn't a subject! We're both human beings! People are not objects you can just play around with!" Zack yelled.

"Do I look as if I care?" Hojo sneered, "As far as this stupid world is concerned, EVERTHING is mine! I am the only one who is the true human! I shall experiment on everything if I want to, and soon, Omega will be my last experiment, and all those so called 'life' such as you and that Ancient, will all disappear!"

From what he was hearing, Zack was disgusted. "I was wrong. Genesis was never the monster. You know about Jenova ever since Gast found her. YOU'RE the real monster!" he shouted in anger.

Despite this, Hojo continued to laugh manically. "There are no such things, my failed experiment. You can take your time to prepare for your little trip through the sea of stars for all eternity, while I prepare myself to be reborn."

"What are you talking out!?"

"Deepground has no idea that I am the true leader and that Weiss will never return." as soon as he said this, Hojo laughed even louder and then vanished, his soul suddenly shooting up into the air, much to Zack's horror.

"Hojo!"

Suddenly, a gun shot was heard and the soul of Hojo suddenly vanished back into the mists of the Lifestream, and Zack thought he could hear the man screaming in confused horror, which, even the scream was unbearable.

"Hmph. That oughta keep Hojo busy for a while." an unfamiliar voice spoke up.

Confused, Zack turned to see who shot Hojo, and almost did a double-take. Approaching him was a man with long black hair, well into his fifties, deep red eyes, and an outfit that looked identical to Vincent's in the living world, except that the cape was black instead of read and the man didn't have a claw. Though Zack never knew Vincent, he remembered seeing him inside the coffen in the ShinRa Manor years ago and recongised him briefly when he and Aerith visited the living world briefly after being Cloud back to life a year ago.

"Is the young lady alright?" asked the man, looking at the sleeping Aerith who was still in Zack's arms.

"Uh, yeah. Just sleeping." Zack replied, before asking, "Who're you?"

The man chuckled, and answered, "Grimoire Valentine; former researcher of ShinRa."

Valentine...no, it can't be. Surprised, Zack couldn't help but ask, "Uh, you wouldn't happen to be related to Vincent, right? Not that I knew him, but Aerith did."

Grimoire nodded, replying, "Yes. Vincent...is my only son."

"Your son..." it then snapped into Zack's mind and he asked in shock, "Wait, that means you're his father!?"

"I haven't seen my son in years...and I probably never will, considering on what Hojo has done to him." Grimoire then shook his head, and corrected himself, "No...I am to blame for Vincent's current condition. If I had...been more closer to him, none of this would've happened, not even to Lucrecia. Now they're both cursed because of me."

Zack was puzzled. "I don't get it."

"Let me tell you something, Zack Fair." Grimoire began, "Long ago, when I was still alive, Lucrecia was my assistant. We were doing a research on the history of Omega and Chaos."

_Flash-Back; Several Years ago._

_While he wasn't feeling right about this, Grimoire Valentine had travelled to a cave of crystals, which, to him, was an amazing sight. His young assistant, beautiful Lucrecia Cresent, who was just like a daughter to him, was with him as they both explored the wonderful cave. But none of this was just as amazing as the sight in front of them. In front of them was a crystal piller which he knew held the soul of Chaos itself._

_"Is this...? Is this the place you spoke of?" asked Lucrecia, who was stunned at the place, being her first time here._

_Grimoire, having been here before in his youth, nodded. "Yes." he said, "Deep within this grotto is where Chaos is destined to awake."_

_To his surprise, Lucrecia, in excitement, rushed over and was giggling happily. "Wait!" Grimoire called out._

_"Come on, Dr. Valentine!" Lucrecia replied._

_Realising that she was impaitent as always, Grimoire smiled and shook his head. It reminded him of when Vincent was five years old and went all over places when Grimoire told him to wait. It was like re-living fatherhood and fathering a young child all over again._

_"The fountain isn't going anywhere." Grimoire pointed out while chuckling softly to himself._

_Several days later, they were back in the underground lab inside the manor in Nibelhiem, and Grimoire stood by Lucrecia who was busy on the computer on the Omega and Chaos theory she came up with. He had a strong feeling that she was right, but didn't understand how or why. He wasn't an Ancient and neither was she, despite her being an orphan and had lived in the orphange until she was 18 before attending science and medical school and when she turned 23, she became a well-known assistant to Grimoire. Still..._

_Behind them, the dark energy of Chaos was floating inside the tube, and as he looked briefly at it, his gut feeling continue to ring warning bells, before looking back at Lucrecia._

_"Don't you think you are taking things a little too quickly?" Grimoire asked, a bit worriedly._

_"And why not?" Lucrecia asked, before stating, "All those people at Shinra who laughed at my thesis... I have to prove them wrong!"_

_And that was the truth, because out of all of the people inside the ShinRa workplace, Grimoire was the only one who believed in Lucrecia's theories, one of the many reasons why he took her in. That, and the fact that he adored her as an assistant, a friend, and a daughter-like figure. Despite that he thought it was a silly thought, he felt like he wanted his son and Lucrecia to meet. Both of them would make a cute couple._

_"Rushing into matters will get you nowhere, Doctor." Grimoire smiled._

_But as he turned to look at Chaos again, he noticed something odd. Looking more closely, he realised too late that the energy was growing and continuing to expand, filling the entire tube, and to his horror, was starting to break free. Lucrecia paused on her work as she heard this, and suddenly she too felt that something was wrong. As soon as she turned to see what was going on, the dark energy starts to crack the tube even further and was aiming at her!_

_Without a second thought, Grimoire shouted, "Look out!" and pushed her out of the way, as the energy shoots a dark energy and hits him right into his right arm, causing him to collaspe onto the floor, his left hand clutching onto his wounded right arm. He felt dizzy all of the sudden, his strength slowly leaving him, but he dismissed it as a death sentence, and told himself that he was just going to pass out._

_At least, that's what he hoped for._

_Lucrecia, shocked at what happened, rushed over to him and gently held his head in her arms. "Are you alright, Dr. Valentine?" she asked worriedly._

_"I'll be fine." Grimoire replied. When he saw that Lucrecia looked like she was about to cry and realized that she was mentally blaming herself for what happened, he rensured, "I'll be...fine." until he realised that the blast of Chaos, despite only hitting his arm, was enough to actually..._

_He realised that it was true. His strength was continuing to fade away from his body, his breathing becoming more like soft gasps for air._

_That's when he knew...he was dying._

_'Vincent...' he thought about his son, and how poorly treated the younger Valentine was the other day. At this moment, Grimoire wished that he went up to him and apologuise...to tell his son how much he loved him. At this moment, he wished that he could tell Vincent how proud he was to be a father and to have Vincent as his son._

_He knew that his time was up, however, as particles from his body began to float up, and he knew, in all his years of research, that he was returning to the Planet-to the Lifestream where he, his family, everyone and everything around him, had originally come from._

_"Dr. Valentine!" Lucrecia gasped in horror and tried to keep Grimoire alive._

_Grimoire didn't blame Lucrecia. He will never blame her. It was not her fault. He was to blame, and that he knew. He could only hope that she would take care of Vincent._

_"Tell my son that I'm sorry." Grimoire requested weakly._

_Lucrecia shook her head, not wanting to believe that her boss was dying, and pleaded, "Dr. Valentine! Dr. Valentine!" as she began to cry._

_But Grimoire looked at her, weakly placing his fading left hand onto her cheek gently, as he smiled and his body began to disappear more quickly into the Lifestream. _

_"My time has come...to return to the Lifestream." Grimoire says one final time, as he closes his eyes, relaxes and allows the Lifestream to carry him away, and his body, and consciousness disappeared. He could still hear Lucrecia for a little bit._

_"No! NO!" Lucrecia screamed in sorrowed pain. "Come back! Why did you have to fade away!? Why did you..." unable to talk any longer, Lucrecia broke down into tears and sobbed._

End of Flash-back.

"But I never knew that Hojo would do something like he did." Grimoire concluded. "However, it's all my fault that Lucrecia and Vincent were involved. If I hadn't found that cave, the Omega and Chaos theory would've never happened. Vincent would've prevented Lucrecia from giving birth to Sephiroth. Hojo would've never done his Jenova theory. If I were still alive, I would've killed him myself, and everything would...be alright. You and Aerith would've had to die."

As Zack listened, he felt himself mentally crying. While he didn't want to blame Grimoire since the guy was an innocent man who just went down the wrong path, he knew that if Grimoire didn't find Chaos, then everything would be alright. But just how different things would be if Grimoire was still alive? Sephiroth would've ceased to exist, or perhaps he would've had Vincent as a father instead of Hojo. Hojo would've been fired or killed, Gast would still be alive and Aerith wouldn't have been taken to Midgar, Hollander would've had died too, and Angeal and Genesis would've both been normal people. Grimoire would've probably found out about the Mako and prevented the reactors from being built. Everyone would've been alright instead of this situation now.

Jenvoa would've still been undiscovered or destroyed, saving the world.

"Damn it, Grimoire!" Zack shouted, his anger getting the better of him. "Why!? Why did you...why did you find Chaos in the f***ing first place!?"

Grimoire looked away to hide his shame, but still answered, "Because I was a curious fool. They did say that 'Curiosity killed the cat', and I might as well consider myself as a cat, not just because of my own death, but the curse I placed to so many others, including Vincent, Lucrecia, to those who are still alive...and to you and Aerith."

He sighed, and muttered, "I'm sorry."

Realising that he shouted against his own will, Zack sighed himself, feeling guilty for shouting like that, and that he knew that despite this, it was all in the past and it couldn't be changed.

"No." replied the younger man. "I didn't mean...I really didn't want to blame you for what happened. I just wish Jenova never existed, but at the same time, the past can't be changed."

"You have every right to blame me." Grimoire said, "But I also agree that Jenova shouldn't have existed."

Zack sighed, then said, "Aerith knew Vincent before she came here when she died. I've only heard about him from her, and I've seen him inside a coffen in the ShinRa manor...sleeping."

Grimoire sighed, admitting, "Vincent was always the one who could never forgive himself. He unfortunately took that after me. I loved my son so much. I wish he had a better future."

"It's all up to him to save the world now, you know." Zack admitted. "Aerith, Angeal and most of the others know that."

The older man nodded. "As long as my son has his and your friends, he'll be alright. And Lucrecia is always with him."

Both of them nodded, and agreed to stand by and wait for Aerith to wake up while hoping for Vincent and Cloud to save the world once again, this time, not a Sephiroth incident.

* * *

On their way back, Cloud was making a phone-call to Cid who promised to bring back-up and head over to WRO since Reeve had called earlier and told them that Yuffie had rescued Vincent in Nibelhiem and were both on their way back as well, and that they were planning for an counter attack in Midgar against Deepground to save the world. Though they were working on the Omega report Vincent found in the manor, not that Cloud, Tifa and Barret knew what Omega was in the first place, but it sounded like a WEAPON, and to Cloud, it sounded just like what he dremt about lately; him, Reno, Rude and Tseng, and even Rufus. Even Freya.

They were resting right now, and Cloud found, when he woke up by a PHS call, that he didn't have the nightmare again, and instead, he seemed to recall a mysterious woman in armor within the Lifestream saying that Omega would no longer hunt him. He also remembered...

Seeing Reno, Rude, Tseng, Rufus and Freya with him, and it seemed like they were all having the same dream, which was very strange.

Shaking his head, wanting to forget the dream for now, Cloud answered the phone, "Hello?"

"**C-Cloud?**" It was Yuffie, and it sounded like she was crying.

Alarmed, Cloud sat up, asking, "Yuffie? What happened? Where are Vincent and Reeve?"

He heard her take a deep breath, then she replied, "**Deepground attacked WRO again, this time damaging the HQ...Vincent went ahead to help out...but Azul, the big scary guy, he escaped and Shelke, Shalua's sister...she's been kicked out of Deepground and was about to get killed...and Shalua...**" she trailled off, trying hard not to cry again.

"W-What happened to Shalua?" Cloud hesitated to ask, hoping that it wasn't what he didn't want to hear.

His hopes were crushed when Yuffie answered, "**Shalua sacrificed herself to save Shelke...she was hit hard by Azul...lost her mecanical arm, and...she's been knocked out, and won't wake up**."

"How? How bad is it?" Cloud asked.

"**She suffered too much trauma to her head. Unless there's some kind of a miracle, she's not waking up ever again...**" Yuffie tried so hard not to cry.

Not again. It couldn't be happening again. Not now.

Cloud didn't say anything, guilt returning to him. He should've been there. While he barely knew Shalua, she suffered too much and to think that she sacrificed herself and will never be with her younger sister ever again...

"I'm sorry." was all he could say.

"**...You didn't do anything wrong, Cloud.**" Yuffie said, hearing the guilt. "**It's all Deepground's fault.**"

"No." Cloud corrected, "It was all ShinRa's. Rufus's father, Hojo, Hollander, Scarlet, Hedigger, all of the scientests...They created Deepground, and not even Rufus or the Turks, or even SOLDIER knew about that until it was too late."

At his own words, Cloud realised that he was right. Nodding, he continued, "We're going to stop Deepground, no matter what it takes. Yuffie, just calm down, alright? We may have lost Shalua, but we're not gonna lose anyone else. If one of our friends is missing after this, I'll go and find them myself and bring them back."

"**You're not gonna run off again, are you?**"

"No. You have my word. I'll tell Tifa and the others about this, and we'll meet up later." Cloud replied, then after saying goobyes, he hung up, and looked at Tifa and Barret who were both still sleeping.

Tifa was sleeping soundly, and Barret was snoring loudly. It's a miracle that both Tifa and Cloud could manage to sleep through the older man's snoring.

* * *

Hanging up and putting her PHS back into her pockets, Yuffie continued to sit on the desk, looking at Shalua's comatose form. It haunted the young ninja. It gave her flash-backs of when the Wutai-terror-Sephiroth killed Aerith three years ago. She still missed the slightly older flower woman. Yuffie never mentioned it to anyone, but she was very fond of Aerith who was like one of her big sisters, someone who was very gentle and kind, but also firm and determinded.

To think that Shalua, who suffered so much in her life and only had recently gotten back to her feet, had to suffer a horrible fate like this now forever.

She heard the door open, and Vincent, silent as always, walked in. He was looking at Shalua's comatose form. He had been there, and he had tried to save her, but it was too late.

Yuffie answered Vincent's unasked question, "They say she won't wake up. She suffered too much trauma to her head. Unless there's some kind of a miracle, she's not..." she trailled off, her emotions kicking in again.

Slamming her hand onto the desk, glared at Vincent and yelled, "Vincent! You were there! Why couldn't you save her!?"

Feeling guilty for what happened, and even blaming himself for not being able to save Shalua, not to mention that he was angry and upset with himself, could only look away from the young wutaiian girl. He was never good in forgiving himself. Never has been. Once again, another sin has been placed inside his heart. He was starting to feel like how Cloud felt over Zack's and Aerith's deaths.

The two of them, different people at different age, had a lot in common. However, Cloud had managed to find the willpower and reason to forgive himself a year ago. Vincent felt that he had no right to forgive himself.

All he could say right now was, "I'm sorry."

Yuffie looked at Vincent, and she suddenly realised that she lashed out at him for no reason. She knew that he tried to save her, and she also knew that he enough sins as it is inside him. The failures of preventing Sephiroth from being used as a tool from Hojo, unable to protect Lucrecia, and unable to stop the Jenova project. Those were the reasons why Vincent, experimented on himself, unable to age, and had buried himself inside a coffen for 30 years, until three years ago.

Feeling bad for snapping, Yuffie looked down. "No...I didn't mean to..." she couldn't finish her sentence, too scared even to. She wanted to make herself and Vincent feel better, but she was just as lost as he was. It was like Aerith's death all over again.

If things weren't bad enough, Shelke, the now ex-Tvist, walked in, emotionless as always, and she says without emotion, "She was a fool."

Angered by the girl's words, Yuffie didn't care if Shelke was the same age as her but stuck in a nine year old's body, and the ninja stood up, marched over and furiously slapped the other girl across the face. Yuffie understood what it was like to lose a family member and a friend, but she was so angry at how cold Shelke was towards her sister.

"You have no right to call her that!" Yuffie snapped, "You don't know...You don't know what...!"

But before she could continue, Vincent walked over and pulled her back slightly to try and stop her from yelling even further. Yuffie looked at him, and nobody else spoke a word. Shelke just looked away.

Unable to hold back her emotions any longer, Yuffie marched away and out of the room, and outside onto the platform, as the sun began to set. She slumped onto the ground, hugged her knees, buried her faced into her arms and sobbed.

It wasn't fair.

* * *

**Vincent: You mentioned my father in here?**

**Tashasaurous: I had to think of something to add to the chapter. I wanna finish this as soon as possible.**

**Cloud: You did the crying part pretty good.**

**Tashasaurous: *noticing that Genesis is missing* Where's Genesis?**

**All: *All hear someone bawling his eyes out from the men's room, and sweatdrop, as Reno comes in***

**Reno: He's flushing the toilet every time so that nobody can hear him blubber his eyes out...too bad it'll take more than that to cover up that blubbering.**

**Tashasaurous: Oooookay. Well, anyway, my showers fixed, my Birthday has come and gone, and it's father's day! Wait, what? Sorry, wrong saying. *Ahem* Please review or rate or favorite, and tell me what you think so far. Look out for the next chapter!**


	11. Calm(sort of) Before The War

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: We're getting closer to the end of this story! I'm so excited! I've been wanting to get this finished, and now it's starting to come true!**

**Reno: It's amazing how you came this far, yo.**

**Cloud: Yeah. You're doing great so far.**

**Vincent: I agree.**

**Tashasaurous: Thanks guys. Anyway, let's continue, and remember, Square Enix owns Final Fantasy VII, not me...hey, where's Genesis?**

**Cloud:...I think he's still crying.**

**Reno: Nah, he fell asleep and is probably dreaming about the Goddess.**

**Tashasaurous: 0~0;**

* * *

Chapter Eleven: Calm(sort of) Before The War.

Wutai was in chaos(No puns), and Deepground was the cause of it. Lord Godo and his army had their hands full, and they tried their best to fight against the enemies. Though the Emperor of Wutai wasn't impressed that President Rufus ShinRa and his Turks had come to aid them after everything ShinRa has done, he had to admit, Deepground and ShinRa were not on each other's side. This time, ShinRa was on Wutai's side, while Deepground was against the entire world! So, for now, he decided to cope for today, which was fine for Rufus and the Turks and former Turks.

The other four warriors of Pagonda Mountain had teamed up one Turk each, and those Turks were Freya, Haruto, Cissnei and Rosalind. St. Andrew was with Legend, Rafe and the other former Turks. Tseng and Elena were at one side of the sacred town helping one half of the Wutaiian Elites, and Reno and Rude were on the other doing the same, and the Turks were doing their best to prevent Deepground from going anywhere near Da Chao Mountain, the very mountain Tseng did not wish to be harmed, and also the very mountain Reno had fallen in love with ever since his first trip to Wutai years ago.

Veld sticked close to Rufus while both of them were with Godo, and the three of them were surrounded by several Deepground soldiers, but neither men were afraid. Veld was used to being surrounded by enemies in solo missions, Godo had been in the war years ago, and Rufus was calm as always, his own death be damned, because he refused to show any weakness.

"These mako-suited men are quite annoying." said Rufus.

"Now you know how we all felt in the War." Godo grunted.

Veld chuckled and said, "Do not worry, Lord Godo. The sooner these men are taken down, everything will return to normal."

"Besides, you can blame the entire mess on my father, Scarlet, Hedigger and especially Hojo, who was the true monster that not even the originals knew." Rufus added.

"Hojo? That sick scientest my daugther mentioned about?" Godo asked, remembering hearing the tales from Yuffie.

Rufus nodded, "But I still intend in aiding to rebuild the world and redeem myself, even if I know that I don't deserve any forgiveness, which I don't mind."

The emperor was a bit surprised on Rufus's wise words. It's like when Yuffie made her point three years ago. He then realised that while the parents(fathers mostly) think they know everything, the children soon then realise the real truths and that's how the world should be; the children making things better for a better future.

"I suppose that you are no where near like your father, Rufus ShinRa." Godo admitted.

Rufus smirked, and then he, Veld and Godo shot and slashed at the Deepground members. Rufus did all the shooting thanks to his training with the Turks in his youth, Veld was careful not to over do it in his old age, and Godo, being the master of Wutaiian-swordsmenship, slashed about ten soldiers in one hit, blood spilling all over the place and some of it spilled onto the man's body.

At this time, Reno and Rude were still fighting, but unfortunately, just as they thought they were done with their side, and Reno gave thumbs up to his partner with a familiar grin, what he didn't see, was one wounded Deepground grunt standing up, and to Rude's horror, and despite the taller man's warning, Reno was shot on the side of his waist, the redhead flinching in horrified surprise, the sudden pain.

Looking down and seeing that his side was bleeding, Reno collasped onto the ground, holding his agonized injury.

"RENO!" Rude screamed out in horror. He then glared at the sounded Deepground soldier, and in fury, punched the soldier square in the face with powerful strength, a sickening crack on the skull and neck on the enemy made, the villian collasping onto the ground, now dead for good.

Reno then made a gasp of pain, and Rude quickly turned to him and rushed towards his best friend, bending on his knees and gently held his wounded friend in his arms. The taller Turk checked on the bleeding wound and found a deep gunshot on Reno's side, bleeding badly. Rude's heart stopped at the sight, and he immediately did his best to keep Reno awake.

"Reno! You'll be alright." Rude ensured as best as he could.

The redhead looked up at his partner, trying to stay awake, but the pain was unbearable. "Rude...D-Don't leave me here..." he managed to say, before hissing in pain, shutting his eyes tight to ease it off, and as a result, tears began to fall.

Rude gently placed Reno on the ground and on the redhead's other side, before taking his blazer off, before removing his white shirt and ripped off both sleeves and tied them together to make a hand-made bandage, before wrapping it around Reno's wound to slow the bleeding, before putting his now sleeveless shirt and blazer back on. He then gently layed Reno on his back before scooping the smaller male as carefully as he could and slowly stood up, shifting a little so that Reno's head can rest on Rude's chest.

The redhead tried to hold on, for his partner's sake.

"Shh...it'll be alright." Rude whispered. He tried to hold in his emotions, and normally he was good at it, but when it came to Reno, his skills always seem to crumble.

Reno was an entire world to him.

* * *

As soon as things calmed down and Wutai was safe for now, Rufus and all of the Turks immediately knew they had to get Reno fixed up or he wouldn't survive. Seeing the wounded Turk and how close his former enemies were now towards each other, Godo allowed them to shelter inside one of the safe houses with nursery where his best Wutaiian healers were.

Tomoyo, the head nurse and somewhat the medicine-woman of Wutai, saw the semi-conscious Reno in Rude's arms, and said wisely, "Please follow me so we can heal your friend."

The taller Turk did as he was told, and Tseng and Elena, both being the closest to Reno, followed while Rufus and the rest of the Turks stayed outside and waited. Even Rufus was very worried for his red-haired Turk. St. Andrew, being Reno's pupil years ago, anixously paced back and forth repeatedly since, well, he hated to admit it, but Reno was almost like an older brother to him. Almost.

Veld tried his best to hold in his own anger. Like the rest of the Turks who used to work for him, Reno was like his own child.

"I never knew that there were people who still cared inside ShinRa." Godo couldn't help but say. The Turks didn't say anything, since they knew where he was coming from.

Rufus looked at him and replied, "The Turks are not SOLDIER. They, aside from Reeve, are probably the only people I ever trusted before my father's death. I never even liked my father. The only people who probably cared were in fact, Reeve and the Turks, and to tell the truth, I trained with them."

"You sound like my daughter." Godo sighed, looking away. "Perhaps I am in a worse state than your father."

The young Shinra shook his head, pointing out, "At least you have a child who makes better decisions than I had until three years ago. Besides, without Reno, or the other Turks, my life now would've been in a hell-hole, or I'd be dead by now."

Godo chuckled, "Yuffie is still a child."

"But she is Wutai's future. She's been raised quite well, and she has all the freedom to do what she believes is the right thing."

Both of them, once enemies, now seeing the differences and maybe...finally understanding. Though right now, the top priority, was Reno's safety.

Inside the room, Tomoyo instructed Rude to place Reno on a wooden bed, and the Turk did so, carefully placing the slightly paled redhead down. The Wutaiian woman then asked for Tseng's insitance since he too was Wutaiian, Turk or not. The two Wutaiians quickly got to work, and the first thing they did, was clean the blood off first, then, with a pair of chop-sticks(better than nothing since there were no twesers), and Elena voulenteered to hold Reno's hand, while Rude paced around, praying to the Lifestream that his best friend would be alright.

As soon as Tseng digged into the wound for the bullet, Reno hissed in pain, and Elena squeezed his hand, whispering, "Reno...it'll be okay. We're here." though tears were falling from her eyes. As much the redhead was a pain in the ass, he blonde loved him like a little sister would.

Tomoyo was busy combining the cure-materia Yuffie gave her a month ago with a certain kind of water, and getting the needle and string ready to tie up the wound.

Tseng finally found the bullet and carefully pulled it out, before cleaning the bleeding around again. He then nodded to the nurse and moved away while the Wutaiian-woman did the rest, removing Reno's shirt and blazer, and began to stitch the wound up. It took her about ten minutes, before she closed it up, and then with her ingredients, poured the cure onto the ground and Reno hissed one more time, before relaxing as the magic of the newly made cure did it's work, and the wound was gone, as if it wasn't there to begin with.

Feeling the pain gone, Reno blinked his eyes open, feeling tired, and noticed four people looking at him, all looking relieved. Rude looked the most relieved, and Elena wiped away her eyes, relieved that Reno was still alive. Tseng sighed in relief.

The woman Reno didn't recongise also looked relieved. He then asked, "Where am I?"

"This is my medical home, young man. You will be alright now." said Tomoyo in a very strong Wutaiian accent. While Reno wasn't Wutaiian, he recongised it instantly ever since Tseng taught him how to speak Wutaiian years ago. Not only that, but Tomoyo looked very beautiful, though she was well into her forties, she was attractive, but too old for Reno.

"Reno, how are you feeling?" Tseng asked, getting his second in command's attention towards him.

Reno smiled a little and shrugged his bare shoulders, saying, "Fine, I guess. Just a little cold since I don't have my blazer on." then looked at Rude and asked, remembering that he was shot, "How bad was it?"

Rude was silent, and couldn't answer. He looked away, so, Elena saved him from the tension and answered, "The wound was deep. We were all scared that you wouldn't make it. It's thanks to Tomoyo that you're alright."

"Tomoyo, huh?" Reno thought, then looked at the said woman and said a bit awkwardly, "Uh, _**thanks for saving me**_." in Wutaiian with his own accent.

"Oh! _**You speak Wutaiian?**_" Tomoyo asked, slightly surprised.

Rude rolled his eyes behind his shades, Elena giggled and Tseng looked at Reno in annoyance, muttering, "Reno." in an annoyed tone.

"What?" Reno shrugged cluelessly. "I was saying thanks in Wutaiian."

Yup. He's been cured alright.

"I suggest that your friend takes it easy for a while for him to get his full strength back." Tomoyo says, and the Turks agreed, despite Reno's protests that he's fine now.

Tomoyo allowed Reno to burrow a coat for the time being until he gets his clothes replaced, before the four Turks walked out and thanked the woman again. Rufus and all of the former Turks were relieved to see Reno back to normal, and Freya leaped into his arms, and surprisingly kissed him on the lips, then stops and hugs him, much to Reno's shock.

The others were equally surprised, but decided that Freya was relieved that Reno was alive.

Reno on the other hand, was still in shock at the unexpected kiss, before he awkwardly embraced the lady Turk back, realising that she had been scared that he might've died. He hated to admit it, but he was scared when he was wounded as well.

* * *

After Godo agreed to be on full alert and actually thanked Rufus and the Turks, the latter group went back to the choppers, and thankfully, Veld allowed Reno to burrow his spare suit(blazer and shirt at least) for the time being until they get back to Healen when the situation is over.

As Reno was busy replacing his clothes, Rude approached him and asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Just a bit exhausted, but I'm alright." Reno replied. He looked at his taller friend and smiled a little. "Thanks for being there for me." he whispered.

"I wouldn't abandon you for anything." Rude replied.

Reno softly chuckled, before the two men embraced each other, not wanting to let go. They were more than just Turks, more than just best friends.

They were brothers.

Few minutes later, both of them approached everyone else, and noticed that they were all suddenly saddened, and Cissnei, Freya, Elena and Rosalind fought not to cry, Rufus held a mixtured look of fury and sadness, and Veld was angrily sad. It made Reno and Rude concerned as both of them looked at each other worriedly, before approaching their 'family', worried that something went wrong.

"What's wrong?" Reno asked.

Tseng sighed, then answered, "Deepground attacked WRO again, and Shalua's been reduced to permanent comatose; the loss of her mechanical arm, and severe truma in her head. She will never awaken again. I just recieved a call from Reeve about the news, and Vincent and Yuffie are with him."

Both of the younger men were shocked by the news. While they were both relieved that Vincent was alright, they were now saddened that Shalua is in a coma forever, might as well be dead. Reno and Rude could not belive this happened. While Reno had managed to survive, he felt guilty because Shalua, who had suffered much more than he ever had, was now facing a horrible fate.

"What about Cloud and the others?" Reno asked.

"They contacted Cid Highwind and Reeve and WRO are planning an attack on Midgar againt Deepground. Cid's on his way to the others, and Cloud, Tifa and Barret along with other WRO soldiers are on their way to Midgar now as we speak." Tseng explained.

They were silent for a moment, silently mourning for the loss of Shalua. For the first time since three years ago, none of them had any idea what to do, considering how the situation was getting worse and worse. Reno felt guilty even more.

Then his mind went back to his brief encounter with the mysterious goddess the LOVELESS poem was talking about. Was she watching over everyone in the Lifestream? Did she know about Shalua's current state? Why did she cure him and the others from the nightmares of the large WEAPON?

'_You and your friends deserve a second chance_.' an familiar angel-like voice had said in his mind when he had that dream. At first, Reno didn't understand what she meant, but then he began to realise that he and everyone else inside ShinRa were working hard to redeem themselves for all of the crimes they did through out the years until three years ago, which Meteorfall drastically changed them forever.

He also remembered the second crazy goddess dream and Reno was certain that Freya, Rude, Tseng, Rufus and even Cloud had the same dream. But that didn't matter now.

What really mattered was blasting Deepground to hell. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

Realising that he wanted to help in saving the world, or at least aid Cloud one more time, Reno nodded firmly to himself, and turned to look at Rufus.

"Sir. Permission to aid Cloud and the others in the war." Reno spoke up in his best authorized tone, much to everyone else's surprise as they all looked at him.

"Reno?" Elena asked.

"I feel really bad for not doing anything in this stupid Jenova War." Reno began, "Sure I got a pardon from Reeve, but I still feel guilty for everything that's been done. I still feel horrible for what I did to Sector 7 three years ago. All those people died because of me, and I want so bad to redeem myself. Not only that, I wanna stop Deepground and heal the world, more than anything. I had enough in hiding in the shadow and leaving everyone else to struggle." he explained.

He continued, "Those Deepground losers had their f***ing way long enough. I don't care if I don't get a phaise or anything. I don't want the world to end, or history repeatin' itself."

"Kid," said Legend with a smirk, "You're speakin' my language."

"I'm with you, partner." Rude added.

"Me too!" Elena pipped up.

"I seriously wanna kick Deepground's freckin' asses!" Rod added.

Freya nodded, "Don't leave me out of the picture."

"I want to help too." Cissnei said.

"So do I." Rosalind added.

"Indeed. I think it's time that I redeem myself as well." said Haruto.

"Count me in." Rafe said, twirling his two guns skillfully.

The other former Turks agreed as well, and Veld nodded, also agreeing. Tseng, being the last, turned to Rufus and inquired, "Sir?"

Finally, after a moment of thinking, Rufus decided that he too wanted to help. He looked at all of them and nodded, "Let us prepare ourselves for the upcoming war. It'll be dangerous, but then where's the fun if it's not dangerous?" earning a couple of chuckles.

"I think you've been around Reno for far too long, Mr. President." Haruto stated.

Rufus smirked, "No, it's more of the case that I like excitement."

With this in mind, Tseng made a phone call to Reeve to tell him that they were going to aid them in the war, before they went back to the Choppers to return to the very place where everything began.

They were heading towards the war.

* * *

When Cid got the phone-call from Cloud about Shalua and that Reeve and WRO needed all the help they can get, the pilot was more than willing to aid in the war. In fact, he was excited to finally put an end to Deepground and smash them right to hell.

It was a good thing that Shera was safe back in Rocket Town. He had called for other back-ups and allowed other WRO members use his other air-ships(dozens of them) to aid in the war by attacking Deepground by air, since those punks had their own weird helicopters.

He then noticed that they were now above WRO, and even heard Yuffie shouting at him, so he flew towards her, Reeve and even Vincent in a fun way before hovering over them, waiting.

"What the hell we waiting for!? It's time to get up 'n go! Come on get on board!" Cid shouted and smirked. He couldn't wait for this to begin.

* * *

A little while earlier, Yuffie calmed down, but was still upset, though she knew that she couldn't cry for Shalua forever. She had to continue on, for her friends' sakes. Then she got a phone call and it was from Tifa who told her that Cloud mentioned about Shalua, before saying that he contacted Cid and an entire fleet to help in aiding the war.

Surprised and now feeling better, Yuffie hung up and then she looked up in the sky. Already she was more surprised as she recongised Cid's airship immediately. Now happy that another one of her friends are here, she immediately pulled out her WRO intercom phone and called out to the others.

"Vincent! Reeve! You'd better get out here!" Yuffie shouted excitedly.

Waiting for a couple of minutes, Vincent and Reeve, who had talked to Shelke about the reports on Omega, walked out and stood behind the excited young ninja, as she waved up to the mountain where she knew that Cid would be flying towards.

"Cid!" Yuffie shouted, "Hey! Over here!"

As if answering her call, the Sieera zipped into few and was now hovering over the others, as more and more similiar air-ships arrived. Yuffie raced closer before stopping, and was stunned in awe at how many they were. "Wow!" she exclaimed.

Though there was just one little problem...she had eggs fo breakfest, which, for someone with motion sickness who ends up inside an Airship...spells stomach problems.

* * *

Meeting up with the rest of the WRO soldiers who would be driving dozens of vans with Barret in the lead, Cloud and the others prepared themselves for the war that is ahead of them. They knew that it was gonna be another battle to save the world, this time, in a massive war that decided the fate of the planet, unlike the Wutai war years ago.

Cloud postioned his motorcycle so that he can drive straight out on the back and then turn to lead the entire fleet. He made a promise to his friends, and he was going to keep that promise. He didn't fight against Sephiroth just for Deepground to destroy the world. The world belonged to the people who survived meteorfall, and the future generations ahead of them.

It won't end. Not now.

"Cloud?" came Tifa's voice.

He turned to see that she was approaching him. Both of them stood for a moment, before Tifa said, "You be careful, alright?"

"I'll be fine." Cloud nodded, "And I mean it this time."

Again, they were silent. Then, to Cloud's surprise, Tifa leaned up to him and kissed him. Stunned at first, Cloud then began kissing her back, both of them giving up themselves for each other in a passionate kiss. It gave them memories of when they were both alone on the night before the final battle against Sephiroth three years ago. It was a perfect moment back then, and it's pretty much obvious that it was a perfect moment now.

After a little bit, they stopped, then nodded to each other, before Tifa whispered something in Cloud ear, and then she walked off to the front seat with Barret who was driving. Cloud stood for a moment, before heading into the back of the van and took a seat on Fenir, his mind thinking of one reply he promised himself to say when the war was over and the world was saved.

'Tifa...I love you too.'

* * *

**Cloud: *blushes heavily***

**Reno: Ha! I knew it! Pay up, Vince.**

**Vincent:...Tch.**

**Tashasaurous: Before Cloud decides to kill these two for his and Tifa's romantic moment, don't forget to review, and look forward for the next chapter. We're getting closer towards the ending!**

**Genesis: *sleeping*..."**_**Infinate in Mystery...ZZZZ**_**."**

**Tashasaurous: Ugh, thank Gaia that he only made an appearence in the secret ending of the game.**


	12. Go for it!

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm back! Sorry about the delay, but you know, writers block and life kept me from writing, especially since my parents are both sick and sore.**

**Cloud: She thinks that this chapter is the second last one.**

**Vincent: I'm thinking that she is right.**

**Genesis: Indeed. Though I'm still not introduced in this.**

**Reno: That's 'cuz nobody knows that you're still alive at this point.**

**Tashasaurous: Like Cloud said, this is the second last chapter of the story! Now, let's continue on, and remember, Final Fantasy VII belongs to Square Enix, not me.**

* * *

Chapter Twelve: Go for it!

Driving in high speed in the wastelands that continued to surround Midgar as it had for many years, even if the city was now abandoned and taken over by Deepground, Barret and the other drivers on all vans had turned on the hover-modes that were invented recently. They were ready now, for the war to save the world. They had to wait for the signal for Vincent and the others in the air, which also included the Turks via helicopters, as Reeve had just rung them to let them know that Rufus and the Turks were now aiding them in the war to stop Deepground.

Nearing the city, Tifa spotted, and took out a walkie-talkie which connected to the back where Cloud was all ready to go, having gotten over his motion sickness to prepare himself for the war.

"I see it!" Tifa said.

In the back and getting Tifa's message, the doors in the back opened up, and Cloud knew that it was time. Placing on his goggles in replacement the ones he lost a year ago, he positioned himself to drive, as he whispered, "Time to go, Fenrir."

And in great speed, he drove out of the truck, before turning it around and speed ahead and was now leading the entire fleet for one of the greatest battles of their lives.

"Awright!" Barret yelled.

"Yeah!" Tifa echoed.

Now everyone was nearing the city, and the entire convoy were all ready.

* * *

In air, several helicopters flew towards the city, following the air-ships. The Turks were ready for war themselves, and if they have to, they'll land on the ground and fight the enemies head on. It wasn't like Ziconiade or Sephiroth; now everyone were standing together to defeat the greatest enemies in the world, and this time, the Turks and Rufus had the freedom to aid Cloud, WRO and the former AVALANCHE.

In one of the choppers, Tseng and Elena were both in the pilot and co-pilot seats.

"Are you alright?" asked Tseng, as he noticed that the woman next to him looked a little troubled.

Elena nodded and she replied, "I'm just a little nervous."

The Wutaiian could understand the young woman's nervousness. He was nervous himself, but as usual, he hid his feelings. Instead, he replied, "I understand that you're nervous. We'll do what we can in the war, and make sure that we come back alive."

"Yes, sir." Elena nodded, then thoughed, "Tseng...do you...miss Midgar?"

Surprised at the odd question, Tseng realised he never thought about it. Come to think of it, while Midgar was more comfortable than Wutai, he realised that he much prefered the Healen Lodge, and so did Rufus, Rude and Elena. Reno missed Midgar, since the redhead was born and grew up there. But even Reno prefered Healen since to him, it was much more relaxing.

After a thought, he shook his head, "...Perhaps a little, but not much." he then looked at Elena and questioned, "Do you miss it?"

"Not really." Elena replied, "I never felt really comfortable there. Not even in Sector 8. I prefer Edge, to be honest."

Tseng nodded. Even Elena never liked Midgar that much, and she certainly didn't miss it.

Right now, their top priority was to help in saving the world, and protecting everyone, including those who matter to them.

In another chopper, Reno and Rude were both having a convensation of their own before the biggest battle of their lives.

"Midgar sure has seen better days." Reno decided to comment.

Rude nodded in silent agreement.

Reno then added, "I still kinda miss it, though. And I miss ShinRa. It was really comfortable, ya know? What I really don't miss is Rufus' old man, the Science Department, Scarlet, Hedeigger, the rules, the..." he trailled off, trying not to think about the missions he was forced to go into; the killings of innocent people for the sake of the Company, taking people in for SOLDIER or experiments, ect.

"Everyone's like that now." Rude said.

"Yeah." Reno nodded. He then smiled and looked at his partner, admitting, "Least I still got you and the others, partner. I wouldn't trade ya's for anythin'."

Rude knew that his partner had the freedom to make that decision now, but back then, Reno would've had to give up his family for the sake of the company. But not anymore; the Turks were a different organization compared to how ShinRa raised them now, and even then, Veld had raised them to think and act, not like SOLDIER who would just go out and fight 24/7.

Suddenly, Reno looked forward again, and made a small gasp in realisation. "There it is." he said.

Rude looked and true to Reno's words, was their former home which was now a battlefield. He looked at the redhead and asked, "You ready?"

"You bet I am." Reno smirked. "It's time to kick some Deepground ass!" and he made a full speed ahead, as did the other choppers. Even Rufus was ready, and despite the Turks' protests, he told them that it was about time he too would fight, not because he wanted attention, but because he no longer wanted to sit back and let the others do all the dirty work for once.

* * *

On the ground inside Midgar, Rosso the Crimson, Azul the Cerulean, and Nero the Stable, were the leads of the Deepground forces, and they could see both their enemies in the air and on the ground, and they knew that the war was about to happen, but they no longer had the hearts to worry about safeties, as they planned on destroying the world and all life in it to their pleasure.

"A simultaneous attack from land and air." Azul said, with a smirk on his face, "I think they may be serious this time."

Rosso chuckled and said, "They had better be. I've been so bored lately."

"His awakening is near." Nero says, "Let tonight be the final chapter." while he thought about the ones who escaped his darkness, and having somehow sensed that the one who had the nightmares of Omega was now cured by the mysterious being within the Lifestream, which, to Nero, the person who was the first one to be cured before others he was connected to were next. They were now useless to him, but he had his sights on Vincent and other souls.

With that said, Rosso and Azul both began to walk away to the battle field along with their army of Deepground, while Nero planned an attack himself.

The final war was about to begin.

* * *

"This is it!" said Cid as he punched his fist into his palm inside the Shera.

"GO!" he shouted.

On his signal, all fleets were descending towards the battlefield, where Deepground was waiting for them. A large group of heavy-armored soldiers with missle-guns on their backs opened-fired, shooting multible missles and managed to hit a couple, but others managed to dodge, as WRO soldiers and Yuffie, on hover-boards, decended from the Shera and began to fight themselves. The war was going on in a heart-beat.

The ShinRa helicopters also descended, and Reno was the first to see a Deepground army below them, and he smirked, saying, "You losers are messing with the wrongs guys!" and pushed a botton which shot mutible bullets from the chopper's machine-gun, hitting every-single one of Deepground in his and Rude's way. It was the same for their allies.

Meanwhile, Cloud, speeding in full speed, was dashing through on his Fenrir, dodging every single missle aimed at him. He opened up his sword-conpartment, and pulled out his Fusion-Sword, ready for battle.

In the van behind him, Tifa turned to Barret and called out his name, with the bigger man nodding, "Yo!" and at the push of a button, the missles on top of the van opened up and fired at the machines built by Deepground, which were instantly destroyed by the attack from Barret's van and the other van's in the ground-fight. Cloud was driving through the firestorm, and even slashed at one of the legs of the machines while driving underneath it, causing it to lose it's balance and collapse onto the ground, defeated.

But as he drove, he didn't realise that on one of the steels above him, Rosso was waiting for him, and she chuckled as he approached. She then leaped off and decencsed down to kill him.

Sensing something, Cloud looked up and saw a woman in red with a creepy looking weapon, and she was spinning in full energy for a full blast. It hit and an explosion occured, but while Fenrir did not survive, Cloud and Ross both did as they both leaped up into the air unharmed, and both of them clashed at each other, resulting a large energy shockwave.

The fight everywhere continued, and even the Shera was damaged, but Vincent and other WRO managed to get out in time, and were now descending themselves into the war, shooting at the enemies, and Vincent having destroyed an enemy chopper by himself thanks to his Ceberus gun, which caused the chopper to explode, before he continued to descend.

He then lands safely on the ground, and, stylishly throwing back his mantle, Vincent glared at the remains of the ShinRa building, where he knew, that it is where Deepground had made it into their stronghold.

* * *

Cloud was still fighting Rosso who was laughing manically. They continued to clash at each other, and the former had to rely on his materia and skills he used when he fought against Sephiroth. He had to admit, though, the woman he was fighting was fast, and pretty much just as crazy too. She killed for a living, Cloud noticed that.

He thought Reno was fast, but Rosso takes the cake, like Yazoo and Sephiroth. But Cloud wasn't going to give up. He was determined to save the world, protect his family and friends, and keep his promise. He needed to catch her off-guard.

But as he was about to attack again, Rosso stood up straight, smiling evilly away, saying, "I think that's quite enough, Cloud Strife."

"What?" Cloud asked, now shocked and confused on why the enemy before him wanted to stop fighting now, before he mocked, "You scared or something?"

"Don't make me laugh, darling." said the red-haired woman, "It's not you I want to dismantle right now; It's your friend, the keeper of the Protomateria."

"Protomateria?" Cloud asked.

Rosso laughed, "Not that you'll ever know. You'd better brace yourself for the end. Once I finish off Vincent Valentine, you'll follow shortly after."

"What has Vincent got to do with Deepground!?" Cloud demanded. Despite that Vincent was immortal, he was still Cloud's friend, and Cloud would even try and protect him, carrier of demons and Chaos or not, he didn't care. Vincent was human. Always has and always will. He then remembered what Nero told him earlier; The Protomateria, the key in summoning omega, and controlling Chaos inside Vincent's body.

Now he understood. Deepground wanted to summon Omega by using the Protomateria, which was implanted inside Vincent around the time Sephiroth was born. This is why the ex-Turk was the target. If that's true, then Vincent is the one to save the world this time, as long as he has the power to stop Deepground and possibly Omega.

'I defeated Sephiroth.' Cloud thought, 'And I was just an ordinary soldier. Something that even Zack couldn't do, but he managed to prevent himself from being mind-controlled. Freya got out of mako poision on her own after three years. Rufus managed to survive, and the Turks don't get killed easily. Vincent can stop Omega. I know it.'

With this in mind, Cloud glared at Rosso again, and said, "Nevermind that. Vincent won't lose to you, or any other of your Deepground troops."

"And why do you say that?" Rosso mocked. "Is it because he was experimented on?"

"No." Cloud shook his head, "Because he and I are alike; There's not a thing...that we don't cherish!"

Leaping into the air, Cloud twirled his fusion sword a few times to prepare his one attack that had the power to kill Sephiroth. Rosso didn't know this, and so she, feeling she has an advantage, also leaped into the air to attack, but didn't realise that she was caught right into Cloud's trap. He then summoned all of his swords to surround the now shocked crazyed woman, and then Cloud then glowed in a mixture of blue and golden lights, before he slashed at her in the air, the same way he did to Sephiroth, hitting Rosso several times in a massive hit, before he hit her from above and landed on the ground, his swords surrounding him, as he caught his largest one.

Rosso ended up landing on the ground herself, and she panted in pain, shocked at what just happened. To think that Cloud Strife had defeated her; Rosso the Crimson...defeated by the young man who killed Sephiroth.

"Now I...understand that you're...really are more than a normal human." Rosso panted, before she looked up and glared at him, saying, "But know this; Vincent Valentine won't be so lucky as you! Once I'm through with him, I will come back and finish you!" before she leaped into the air and ran off deep into Midgar.

Cloud watched her leave, muttering, "I wouldn't be certain about that." as the sun had now set and night has come, stars are visible. So was the fighting in the air, though. However, he was worried about Vincent. He could only hope that Vincent still had the protomateria and continued to control Chaos inside him.

"Cloud!"

Hearing someone calling his name, Cloud turned around and saw that Tifa and Barret had finally managed to catch up with him, and were both perfectly alright for now. "Tifa, Barret. How's everything?" Cloud asked once they were all standing together.

"We lost contact with Cid and the others!" Barret said, "They suddenly lost their signal or somethin'!"

"What about the others?"

"Rufus and the Turks just landed and are helping out on the ground now." Tifa replied, "I think pretty much all of the Deepground's helicopters have been blown up."

Cloud nodded, then said, "I'm sure Cid and the others are fine. They won't go down that easily." before asking, "Did you get hold of Vincent?"

"Not yet, but I'll try again." Tifa said. She then pulled out her PHS and after about the fifth try this week, she dialed the ex-Turk's PHS number and held it to her ear, hearing it ring a couple of times, before finally, to her relief, and while Barret and Cloud looked out for anymore enemies, she heard the phone being answered.

"Hey, I got through!" Tifa exclaimed happily, much to Cloud's and Barret's surprise.

"**Tifa?**" came the familiar deep-toned voice that belonged to Vincent Valentine.

Barret approached and shouted, "Wha? You got through!?" then yelled at Vincent over the phone, "Yo! Vincent! You still alive!?" while Tifa had to flinch away slightly, rubbing her sore ear from Barret's shriek, before she replied to him, "Of course he is, we're talking to him, aren't we?" then she looked at him annoyed and asked, "And do you really have to shout right next to my ear?"

Cloud struggled to keep a straight face, knowing all too well how these two got on. Tifa was more of a silent one, even when she's angry, her yells were usually soft but firm. Barret on the other hand, could scream so loud that he would make everyone deaf almost literally. He then asked, "Can I speak to Vincent?"

Tifa nodded, while Barret laughed and said to the woman, "Sorry 'bout that, Tifa!"

Shaking her head, Tifa then replied to Vincent, "I apologize, Vincent. Here's Cloud." before handing over the phone to Cloud who held it to his ear now.

"Vincent?" he asked.

"**Cloud. It's been a while**." Vincent replied over the phone.

The two of them talked for a bit, catching up a bit before talking about the situation, before Vincent asked about Cid's airship, and Cloud replied, "We lost contact about 15 minutes ago." before stating, "I don't think we have to worry, though. Those two should be fine." talking about Cid and Yuffie.

"**Yeah**." Vincent replied, before asking, "**And what about you?**"

Cloud chuckled and asked sarcastically, "What do you think?"

"Right! You can count on us!" Tifa added, with Barret adding, "When I'm through, there won't be a single sucka standing!" though it made both Tifa and Cloud flinch a bit again.

"**Right.**" said Vincent.

"As for you..." Cloud began, but was politedly cut off by Vincent who replied, "**Don't worry. Leave Deepground to me.**"

Cloud nodded, then remembered that Vincent had never been inside the ShinRa building, and could get a bit lost, so he said, "Can you hold on a second?" before handing the phone back to Tifa who knew what to do.

She placed the phone back on her ear and said to Vincent, "Vincent, I'm sending you a map of the Shinra Building." before fiddling with the phone of her copy of the ShinRa building map, and sent it over to Vincent who retrieved it, then she said, "Deepground is below the complex. Take an elevator as far down as you can."

She then added, "Good lu-" but was cut off again.

Because Barret yelled loudly over the phone, "Give 'em hell, Vincent!"

"Barret, I thought I told you to-" as Tifa handed over the phone back to Cloud she began to lecture the taller man, while Cloud said on the phone to his friend once more, "Don't go getting yourself killed, now." though he knew that Vincent knew better than that. Still, the blonde-haired man just had to make sure.

Both then hung up, and Cloud rejoined Tifa and Barret to continue to fight against the enemies, which, for once, were now finally starting to fall in numbers, despite the heavy loss of some of the WRO members.

* * *

Having just witnessed the Shera suddenly suffering engine failure and then crash land into the forming waters from the river outside Midgar and into the ruined city made the Turks fully alarmed. They didn't suffer any heavy damages and it was working just fine fifteen minutes ago. So Rufus ordered the Turks to descend and search for survivors in an emergancy rescue, which they did as they were told. Besides, they were worried about Cid.

They landed their choppers near the now destroyed air-ship, as it suffered severe damage that was beyond repairing-Scratch that, it was now just a pile of broken metal.

Hurrying towards it, the group looked everywhere as carefully but quickly as they could, until Rod noticed a pod nearby and approached it. He opened it up and Cid bursted out, sighing in relief and scaring the s*** out of Rod who screamed with a fright.

"I hate those Deepground punks." Cid sighed.

Once Rod realised this, he sighed and grumbled, "Cid, don't scare the f*** outta me like that!"

Meanwhile, Reno and Rude were looking for more survivors as Tseng, Elena and the former Turks and Rufus found that only a couple of the WRO troops had died, but the rest of them, including Reeve who was also in another safety pod were still alive with surprisingly minor injuries.

But as they searched, Reno then noticed the lake, and...something else that made him gasp. Immediately he rushed towards it, to Rude's confusion. The redhead jumped into waist-deep lake, and made his way to the sleeping pod where Shalua was in due to WRO HQ closed at the moment. Reno got up close, and his heart felt heavy. The glass was cracked and broken, the pipes which were keeping her alive were snapped, and was now standing upward, but Shalua was still lifeless.

Reno lowered his head, shutting his eyes tight, refusing to let his tears form free. Now Shalua's only chance of some sort of survival was gone, and it probably didn't even matter even if the energy tube wasn't broken. She had no chance of any recovery.

And he could remember the last time he saw her alive and awake. Reno looked at the woman's death-like slumber body, and knew that ShinRa had taken everything away from her; her parents, her sister, and now, Deepground had taken away her life. It was a twisted and cruel punishment for another innocent who wanted to find her sister and get revenge.

'No.' Reno thought to himself. 'Deepground is ShinRa's darkest secrets. And...I was part of ShinRa. Cloud and the others were right; ShinRa is the Planet's enemy.'

"_No. It's only Rufus's father, Scarlet, Hedeigger, Hojo and Hollander who were the Planet's enemies, and they made Sephiroth and Deepground enemies now too._" a familiar voice spoke.

Blinking, Reno's found himself in a strange place of white light, and as he looked around, he gasped a confused surprise and shock.

Standing before him was Aerith, still the same as she was before she died.

"You?" Reno asked, still unable to believe what he was seeing.

Aerith nodded, "_Don't blame yourself for everything, Reno. Everyone knows that you're doing what you can do redeem yourself._"

Reno turned around, trying not to give in into his own guilt. "But...I killed a lot of people in sector 7, and I didn't have a choice. I'm a monster." he whispered.

"_Those people from Sector 7 forgive you, Reno. They asked me to sent their message to you. Even the other people you killed before that forgive you, and they want you to help in saving the world._" Aerith explained.

Looking back at her, Reno asked, "They...are?"

The cetra nodded, "_You're human, Reno. The only one who is the real monster is Hojo and Jenova. Remember, everyone has to make their own choices, no matter what happens._"

'No matter what happens, huh?' Reno thought. He looked back to say something, but blinked again when he saw that he was back in Midgar at the lake.

Was talking to Aerith just a dream?

"Reno?"

Blinking again, Reno turned to see that Rude was standing next to him, looking at him. Reno read the expression; the taller Turk was worried.

Remembering what Aerith told him, Reno realised that she was right. He looked back at his partner and said, "I'm okay. We'd better get goin', 'cuz there's nothing we can do for Shalua now."

Though Rude had no idea what his partner was doing, he nodded in agreement, and the two of them began to walk out of the lake and rejoin the others.

However, Reno paused and looked back at Shalua's lifeless form, and whispered, "Sorry that you had to go through hell. I'm sure that Cloud and the others will look after your sister. They know what they're doin'." before turning again and followed his partner to continue the mission in helping Cloud and Vincent to save the world.

Though the worst was yet to come.

* * *

**Tashasaurous: If things go a bit weird, I might add an Epilogue if that happens. Don't forget to review and look forward for the next(or last) chapter!**

**Cloud, Genesis, Reno and Vincent: And if you're interested, look for more of her stories on her profile. She won't mind.**


	13. Chosen Connections

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: This is the final chapter, but the story isn't over yet, as the epilogue is next and then the story is truly finished!**

**Cloud: Hard to believe that it came by so quickly.**

**Reno: Yeah...hey, where'd Vincent and Genesis go?**

**Tashasaurous: Genesis went to the LOVELESS play and Vincent...well, you'll have to wait until the epilogue everyone. Now, remember, this is the final chapter before the epilogue, and like always, I don't own Final Fantasy VII-Square Enix does, and I wish they would get their butts into gear and make the next story-lined game of the Compilation that'll give us the answer to Genesis's return and what will happen next!**

* * *

Final Chapter: Chosen Connections.

Having a feeling that Vincent will need more help and that WRO couldn't shut off the Mako Reactors, Yuffie decided to go and find Vincent herself, and that she wanted to help him defeat Weiss. Having put on her cloak again, she snuck into the bottom of the ShinRa building, and knew that the nightmares were down there. She wasn't scared, though. She was excited.

As she went down the hallways, she noticed a strange sphere of darkness in the middle of the road, and, having a bad feeling about it, walked passed it and continued on. She heard about Nero's darkness from Shelke briefly, and Yuffie hated to admit it, but that small information the former Tsviet gave her was enough to give the Wutaiian Princess the creeps.

Finally, she entered another room leading to Mako Reactor 0, and hid behind a broken piller, and saw someone; the man whom everyone feared the most-metal wings, mask, and darkness flowing through his vains.

Nero the Stable.

Yuffie then climbed up the top and watched, as she also noticed another dark orb. Nero began to walk away, but as Yuffie witnessed this, to her surprise and shock and relief, as well as Nero's slight surprise, was Vincent who had been swallowed up the second time, and had escaped, along with Shelke who stumbled and collasped onto the ground. She was clearly exhausted, and for the first time in hours, Yuffie felt sorry for her. Vincent seemed uneffected, and was glaring at Nero who turned back and he seemed to realise what happened.

"I see. Soul wrought of terra corrupt." Nero spoke, "My darkness would have no control over you, would it?"

'Soul wrought of terra corrupt? That sounds like something from LOVELESS.' Yuffie thought.

"So I must try a different dance." Nero said, and Yuffie quickly realised that the weird man was about to use his darkness again. She had to do something to distract him!

Quickly standing on top of the fallen debris, Yuffie threw her Shuriken and it was enough to distract him as it landed near his feet. Everyone looked up to see her and she knew that now was the time to show off again.

"Even in a world where fear and despair reign over the heavens, you must never forget-where there is shadow, there is always light!" Yuffie quoted, "That's right! Bask in my rays, evildoers! Feel the radiance of Wutai Super Ninja, Yuffie Kisaragi! Back and ready for action!" and she also used her teleport materia behind her back to shine light behind her as if she was possesing the power of light.

It only made Vincent and Nero stare at her, making everything pause awkwardly.

Not willing to stand and be in the pressence of the strange Wutaiian child, Nero simply said, "My brother calls." before turning and then he disappeared into his darkness towards the reactor.

While Yuffie was relieved that Nero was gone for now, she was annoyed that Vincent turned his attention to the tired Shelke. Wanting to help out and get their attention, she waved her arms, calling out, "Hey! Over here, guys!" but then she missed her step, and although she tried to keep her balance, she tripped and fell all the way down and slid onto the ground face first right next to both of them in an embarrasing moment.

Vincent just sighed, feeling a little embarrassed and annoyed. Of all of his friends to have come and aid him, why did had to be Yuffie? He did appreciate that she saved him earlier and had just distracted Nero, but still, even though she is Wutai's future heir, she can be a little annoying sometimes. Not only that, she seemed to like him the most.

None the less, he knew that she wouldn't take no for an answer or she would simply refuse to walk away. So, Vincent would just have to cope with Yuffie again for a while. It wasn't that he didn't like her, he couldn't afford to let another woman into his life where they are at serious risk. Besides, Yuffie was only 19; Vincent was in his early 60's but stuck in his 27 year old body.

* * *

While Cloud was making his way towards Mako Reactor 1, fighting the remaining Deepground troops, he couldn't sworn he was hearing the world crying in agony, and so many wailing souls within the Lifestream screaming. Having heard the Planet cry three years ago when Sephiroth summoned Meteor, Cloud and his friends had somehow gained the weird ability to sense when the world was in danger at the last minute.

As Cid said long ago, the world was like a child, lost in the sea of stars and darkness.

Just then, his PHS rang, and Cloud paused and took it out to open it, and answered, "Hello?"

"**Hey, Cloud! Still among the living!?**" speak of the devil, it was Cid, alive and as sarcastic as always. "**Heh, just kiddin'.**"

Cloud couldn't help but chuckle, and replied, "I knew that you were still alive. Where are you?"

"**Got picked up by Rufus and the Turks and they dropped me off at Reactor 3. Vince had better kick Weiss' ass or I'll brin' him back the hell and send him back myself!**" Cid explained.

Well that was certainly a surprise. Then again, Cloud had to admit, Rufus was telling half of the truth in wanting to rebuilt the world, if only it wasn't wasn't that Reno wasn't ShinRa to be rebuilt. Then again, the redhead had explained briefly that the ShinRa building was like a home to him and the Turks.

"I'm certain that Vincent will take care of Weiss, and if Omega decides to come to life, all we have to is destroy the Mako Reactors." Cloud explained, "I'll call you back when I get the chance."

"**If we get a chance.**" Cid pointed out.

Cloud sighed, "Don't worry. I trust Vincent."

* * *

After leaving Shelke inside a pod to recover, Yuffie went her way to shut down the reactor, before Vincent met up with her, and the two of them continued together to finish off the enemies and save the world, hoping that by defeating both Nero and Weiss quickly, it'll give them a chance to prevent Omega from awakening.

Entering the reactor, which was just as creepy as the others, Yuffie and Vincent notice something in the middle of the Mako pool, and made Yuffie and even Vincent gasp in confused horror; on a throne in the middle was Weiss, who wasn't even moving or even breathing.

Something was seriously wrong.

"This is Weiss?" Vincent asked, just as shocked.

"It's-he's-it's dead?" Yuffie asked, unable to say anything else. She couldn't even tell if Weiss even human or just a figure created, kind of like Hojo's sick experiments.

"But not for long." came Nero's voice behind them, making both of them turn around and notice that Nero was standing there behind them, waiting for them, or for something else.

Yuffie felt a little scared, and asked, "Not for long?"

"A new life breathes inside him." Nero ignored Yuffie and turned his attention to Vincent. "Just as one does in you, Valentine."

Yuffie blinked in confusion, not understanding what the villian was saying. Vincent, however, looked at Weiss, then back at Nero and he understood; Weiss was the one who held Omega inside him, just as Vincent held the Chaos gene. It made sense.

"That's what you're doing." Vincent realised.

"What's he doing?" Yuffie began to demand, "What's he doing? What's going on? I don't get it."

Nero chuckled, "Soon, my dear brother will awaken. It seems like an eternity since I was granted the knowledge of rebirth."

"Granted?" Vincent asked.

"By who?" Yuffie added.

Just then, the ground began to shake violently, causing both Yuffie and Vincent to almost lose their balance, and then they noticed that the mako pool was glowing brighter, which meant it was a bad sign. Yuffie was shocked. She had turned the reactor off, and somehow, it was back on again. It wasn't good.

They then realised that Omega was very close in awakening, and both of them knew that they had to stop Weiss and Nero now before it was too late. They both took out their weapons, ready to fight.

However, Nero would not let them, as he exclaimed, "Stay away from my brother!" and unleashes a huge wave of darkness, which quickly swallowed both Vincent and Yuffie while neither had the time to escape in time.

* * *

Floating down into the darkness, Yuffie was regaining consciousness, opening her eyes only to see nothing but pitch black darkness. Her heart stopped frozen there. She quickly realised where she was; inside Nero's darkness. Suddenly she felt a jolting pain in her head, and she cluntched it both with her hands, frightened and wanting to return to the world of the living. She wasn't ready to die yet, and if she was consumed here, she will never even return to the Lifestream.

"No...NO!" Yuffie screamed as the darkness soon began to consume and swallow her.

Somewhere close by in the darkness, Vincent, once again uneffected, heard Yuffie's cry of horror, and, not willing to lose another friend, quickly searched and found her, and as he got closer, the darkness around the young woman vanished, and he quickly scooped her into his arms, and had already found an exit. Jumping out, Vincent and Yuffie found themselves back outside of the room.

Feeling dazed, but her head less painful, Yuffie metally told herself to calm down, as she somehow knew that Vincent had found her, and he had saved her life. She supposed that this was his way of saying thanks and repaying her for saving his life from Rosso earlier, which was enough for Yuffie.

Vincent gently sets Yuffie down onto the floor, and knelt in front of her, asking in slight worry, "You alright?" while he was relieved that he made it in time.

Tired and still scared crapless from the close call, Yuffie nodded before asking, "What the heck was that?"

The darkness in front of them were they escaped from then disappeared and Nero appeared again, explaining, "Oblivion perhaps. My darkness- it can absorb as well as extract almost anything." before he admitted, "However, some things remain-things as black as the heart of a daemon. The essence of death. Its ululations are like a lullaby."

Not understanding, Yuffie began, "How can you..." before she trailled off. She didn't have the strength to continue, and wanted nothing more than just lie there and sleep for a little bit to recover, no matter how much she wanted to help Vincent, who turned to face Nero, and he told, her, "Yuffie, stay here." as he knew that he would have to face Nero on his own and had no attention on getting the young woman into anymore danger.

Yuffie didn't protest. She just layed there, closing her eyes and didn't even notice that Nero took himself and Vincent somewhere else. She then slipped back into unconsciousness.

* * *

Within the Lifestream, something was seriously wrong. Zack, Aerith and Grimoire had searched for Hojo until finally they noticed him and another-Weiss-standing there, and they were descending towards the sky and to their horror, the world of the living.

"Don't let them get away!" Grimoire shouted.

Zack didn't need any more info as he already made haste to stop the two villians from escaping the Lifestream. But despite his speed, he was too late. Hojo had already began to possess Weiss' body, and then both of them vanished into thin air. The former SOLDIER could only curse at his failure to stop them.

Aerith could only look up into the sky of the Lifestream, and silently prayed, "Vincent, Cloud...please stop Hojo and Omega."

Looking at the sky as well, Zack whispered, "Vincent...I know that you and me won't ever meet, but please, save the world and stop Hojo! You're the only one now who can do it."

Grimoire, while worried for his only son back in the world of the living, also knew that it was up to Vincent to save them all now. 'My son...my the Lifestream and Lucrecia guide you.'

* * *

Close to the reactor, Cloud and his friends around in Midgar were just about to do their tasks when all of the sudden the ground shook more violently than ever before, making everyone lose their balance and fall onto the ground.

"What!?" Cloud gasped as he looked up.

Near reactor 5, Rufus and the Turks also looked up, and were just as shocked at what was happening.

"What's happening?" Rufus asked.

"What the hell is going on!?" Legend exclaimed.

As Tifa stood up near reactor 3, she gasped as it suddenly sprung to life, just like when ShinRa was using the reactors to power up the Sister Ray to destroy the barrier that surrounded the Northern Cave Sephiroth created three years ago.

Cloud noticed that reactor 1 bursted to life as well, his eyes widened in horror as he realised what this meant.

Soon, one by one, all of the reactors had come to life, once again sucking the Lifestream. Everyone outside looked up in awed horror as three strands of the Lifestream energy created a giant green ball just above the ruined ShinRa building, before eight smaller ones that acted like tentacles came out of the ball and then stabbed themselves into all eight of the reactors around Midgar, narrowly missing everyone near the reactors. As everyone looked up again, they all gasped, as an object began to form into a giant dragon-like monster, twice as big as the WEAPONS from three years ago.

Omega has awoken.

"That's Omega!?" Cloud asked in horror. He recongised it. It was the exact same thing as he saw in his nightmares weeks ago.

Rufus and the Turks couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"That isn't Omega, is it?" Freya asked, fear dripping in her voice.

"Sadly...yes." Rod grumbled. "That f***ing thing's huge!" he exclaimed shortly after.

"No s***." Rafe replied in sarcasm.

Reno was speechless, as he stared at Omega in sheer horror. It was the very same thing had repeatedly saw in his nightmares, and he couldn't believe that he was seeing this thing for real. He had hoped that it wouldn't wake up and that he wouldn't have to see it for real. To think that Vincent failed and they were all going to die was just too horrifying. It was like Meteor three years ago.

In fact, most of them were speehless right now. Just just their group, but everyone in Midgar. Suddenly something glowing in purple energy bursts out of Omega and flies into the air, shocking everyone even more. Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Cid, Reeve, and Yuffie, who had just escaped and ran out through the secret exit she found, all stared up and looked, recongising the smaller red figure with bat-like wings.

It was Chaos, and it was trying to break through the barrier Omega summoned.

Rufus and the Turks also noticed, and Cissnei immediately asked, "Who is that!?"

Snapping out of his horrified daze, Reno was the first to recongise Chaos and exclaimed, "It's Vincent! He must've turned into Chaos!"

"What do you mean, 'turned into Chaos'?" Fayte asked. "What's going on?"

Tseng was the one to explain, "None of us really understand aside from Cloud and his friends and Vincent himself, but Vincent was another one of Hojo's experiments, and he was implanted by many demons who reside in his body; Chaos is one of them and is the most dangerous and powerful demon ever."

"Yes." Veld nodded in agreement, "And yet, Vincent chose to sleep for 27 years until Cloud and his allies found him and only then he decided to return to the world, while his body still contained Chaos."

"So you're saying that Vincent can turn into Chaos at his own will?" Rosalind inquired in scared confusion.

"Uh, I don't think that's the case right now, 'cuz Chaos looks pissed." Rod commented, causing everyone to look up and notice that Chaos was roaring in anger.

Haruto nodded, "Indeed, it's almost as if Vincent is not there."

"What's happened to Vincent and Chaos?" Elena asked.

Even Reno was worried. As much as he didn't like Vincent, he knew that the ex-Turk was one of them a long time ago, even before Reno and his friends around him(save for Veld who's the similiar age to Vincent) and Rufus were born.

"C'mon, Vincent. Don't let us down." Reno whispered to himself.

Rude stood next to Reno, and could only stare, sharing his partner's worry and silently prayed for Vincent to save the world and everyone and everything living in it.

Suddenly, a bright stream of light bursted out of Omega's mind and shot towards Chaos and goes through his body, and in the bright light, Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Cid, Reeve, Yuffie, Rufus, Reno, Rude, Tseng, Freya and within the Lifestream, Zack and Aerith all gasped silently in their minds, as they suddenly felt their souls being dragged and their visions blurred, seemingly passing out, and the only thing they could hear was Chaos's roar.

* * *

Cloud blinked his eyes open, and his gasped, realising that he wasn't in Midgar anymore. He was inside the cave where Lucrecia was in the crystal, sleeping. On top of that, there was Vincent, sitting on the ground, seemingly sleeping. As Cloud then looked around, he blinked in even more confused surprise; his friends-Tifa, Barret, Cid, Reeve, Yuffie-, and even Rufus, three of his Turks and Freya, and even his deceased friends-Zack and Aerith-were with him, looking around in the same confusion, before they noticed him, and were just as confused as he was.

"What's going on?" Freya asked nervously.

"Where the hell are we?" Reno added. "And why are the slick and the ancient here? I thought they were both dead."

Zack was just as confused, as he replied, "Well, Aerith and I are, or, at least, I think we still are."

"Zack...? Aerith...?" Cloud asked, as he approached them, but stopped himself, too afraid that if he touched them, he'd be seeing ghosts instead.

Rufus then said, "This is certainly not normal."

"Why isn't Vincent moving?" Tifa asked, noticing the ex-Turk's lack of moment or reaction.

"Vince?" Barret and Cid both called out, but Vincent still didn't make any movement.

Reeve looked at Rude who shrugged a little.

Tseng then turned to Aerith, and even though he was surprised to see her again, couldn't help but ask, "Aerith, what is happening to us?"

"And are you still...you know...or are you...?" Yuffie tried to find the right thing to ask, and had to fight the urge to try and hug the woman she missed so much.

Before Aerith could speak, however, everyone then noticed a glimer of light, and when they turned to look, their eyes widened in awe, as Lucrecia, who had been inside the crystal for 30 years, floated down and approached Vincent, unaware of everyone else being there, watching both of them.

"Lucrecia..." Cloud muttered.

"Uh, who?" Zack asked.

Aerith sighed, and explained, "She is the one who gave birth to Sephiroth, before she incased herself inside a crystal to hide away from the world because of her guilt."

"You mean..." Zack trailled off, beginning to understand what this meant.

"Wait a minute, are you saying that this lady is...Sephiroth's mom?" Reno asked, just as dumbfounded as Zack was.

"And Vincent's lover." Cloud added. "Lucrecia was the only woman Vincent could ever had fallen in love with, before Hojo shot him."

Zack was just as shocked now, as he exclaimed in disbelief, "No way!" turning his attention back to the woman who is no doubt the real mother of Sephiroth who never even knew that.

"_Hello Vincent_." Lucrecia greeted, then looked around, though she still didn't take notice that Cloud and the others were there. "_Something's wrong..._" she said.

She then looked at Vincent and explained, "_You see, this is me, but only in a sense. It is merely a reflection created with my remaining data._" she looked away in saddness and added, "_The real me crumbled away long ago._"

That's when Aerith knew. She then looked at the others and explained, "We're seeing the connection Vincent and Lucrecia still share, and I think someone managed to get inside Omega and took away the Protomateria, somehow placing back inside Vincent's chest."

While nobody understood what Aerith meant, they then realised that they were inside somewhere they didn't expect to go to.

"We're in...Vincent's mind?" Tifa asked.

"How is that possible?" Tseng inquired.

Zack thought about, then suggested, "Maybe it's because we're closer to the Lifestream than expected?"

"It's because the Planet saved everyone and itself from Meteor, after Sephiroth was destroyed." Aerith explained, "And because we had our own connections, save for me, that this is what's happening. It's because Vincent is the only one who can save the world; he was meant to do this."

"Not sure I get it." Freya admitted.

Everyone then looked back at Lucrecia and Vincent, before the scenary around them changed, and they found themselves on a beautiful grassy hill underneath a tree, just outside what Cloud and the others recongised as the ShinRa manor in Nibelhiem. They had to admit, it was a nice place, seemingly relaxing.

"Never knew this kind of place existed before." Reno admitted.

Cloud did. "My mother told me about this kind of area, before the Mako Reactor was built. People used to come here for picnics or for kids to play in."

"You're right." Tifa agreed, looking around the area. "This area was a sanctuary."

"_The warm breeze on our skin..._" Lucrecia spoke to Vincent again, causing everyone to look at her again, as she continued, "_I know that it no longer exists. Things fade with time, as do many things in this world. But there are some things that we cannot let disappear._"

She finally looked at Vincent's still unmoving form, tears forming in her eyes as she continued, "_I finally...I finally realized my true feelings. Even if you may never understand them._" she turned again with a smile, saying, "_Not that I mind though._"

Then she frowned again, and admitted, "_But... This isn't how it was supposed to be. I've made too many mistakes. And I've hurt you so, so much._" before asking herself in a regretful tone, "_Why did I do what I did?_" and it even made Cloud and the others feel sorry for her.

Cloud wished to tell Lucrecia that it wasn't her fault, and that she wasn't the entire blame. He wished to tell her that everyone has a sin and that sometimes they can be forgiven. Even Rufus felt sorry for the very first time truly in his life.

"We'll take care of Vincent." Cloud decided. "We owe Lucrecia this much. He helped us out all the time ever since we first met him." he looked at his friends, and nodded, "Now it's our turn to help him."

Everyone was surprised at Cloud's decision, yet, they did understand his reason, and deep down, they all agreed. Vincent helped them in defeating Sephiroth and saving the world twice. Now it was their turn to help him in saving the world and giving him a decent future, to let him know that he wasn't alone, just as Cloud learned a year ago.

Zack smiled, feeling proud of his blonde haired best friend, and said, "Spoken like the greatest friend in the world, Cloud."

They then all felt their consciousnesses fading and they knew that it was time to return to their realities, and while Cloud and the others were saddened to leave Aerith and Zack again, the latter two both nodded, and Aerith said, "Don't forget, we're always with all of you, and the Planet wanted to give everyone a second chance, because it knew that you were trying to save it from Sephiroth. Everything will be alright; just believe in Vincent."

Cloud was the last to see Aerith and Zack, and he replied, "Right...We'll do what we can to help Vincent."

The last thing everyone heard was Lucrecia saying, "_I'm so very sorry...But I'm so happy you survived_."

* * *

As soon as everyone in Midgar who had the vision of Lucrecia and Vincent woke up, they all immediately took action, and gathered up courage to take down the Mako Reactors to weaken Omega's shield barrier. It was the least they could do for Vincent who was still in his Chaos form, but now in full control since the Protomateria was back inside his chest.

As Vincent zoomed up towards Omega, Cloud, his friends, WRO and Rufus and the Turks wasted no time to destroy the Reactors and disable Omega's connections. The Turks, WRO and Cid all implanted explosives into their reactors, as Yuffie and Shelke, who was rescued by Vincent after she used her last SND to retrieve the Protomateria, were both with Reeve, Tifa was dealing with the last of Deepground, and Barret was shooting the life out of the strange beings Omega summoned.

As for Cloud, being the hero that he was, and one who always makes a dramatic scene in a crisis like this or similiar, likes to do things with style, just like Zack used to. As Omega tries to send Vincent backwards, Cloud leaped into the air, and used his special limit form he used against Sephiroth and Rosso and destroyed the Reactor, before he swiped at the tentacle with his fusion swords, cutting it loose, causing it to retreat back into Omega, and Cloud flipped in the air as he landed safely on the ground.

His task done, Cloud took out his phone and called someone, saying, "Sorry about the wait."

Tifa kicked and killed one last Deepground soldier, then reported through her PHS, "Everything's clear over here!"

Barret then fired multible bulles at the weird laser monsters, before exclaiming to his Chaos-formed friend, "They're all yours now, Vincent!"

Rufus waited paitently with Veld and some of the other Turks as Tseng, Elena, Reno, Rude, Cissnei, Freya, Legend and Rod casually walked back towards them, with both Reno and Legend pressing bottons on remotes, and just as soon as they did that, two reactors were blown apart. Rod and the rest of the Turks already blew up their own reactors, and all of them were smiling.

"Now that's what I call explosive on the battlefield." Legend smirked.

Reno chuckled, "Not as many pretty colours as last year's flashy explosives." remembering the explosives Rude built himself to kill Yazoo and Loz. Rude chuckled at his best friend's comment.

Cid in the meantime, casually lit up a cigarette while leaning against a metal piller, as the reactor nearby collasped and exploded. He then muttered, "All in a day's work."

Meanwhile, Reeve ordered, "Fire." and WRO did so, and the result of the reactor exploding, and Yuffie and the WRO soldiers cheered on happily, while Reeve smiled, crossing his arms and he said, "And just in time."

Shelke smiled herself, asking herself, "When did I start caring so much about what happened?" before turning to look at the sky, saying quietly to Vincent, "The rest is up to you."

As the streams of energy return to Omega, the shield is now disappearing, and Rufus and the Turks knew that now all Vincent's friends had to do was call out his name.

And Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Cid, Reeve and Yuffie did so, all of them exclaiming in unision from their areas, "VINCENT!"

The said man in the form of Chaos heard their call, and he flew up higher, before he glanced at Omega, before saying to himself in his slightly distored voice as he is Chaos, "Guess I have no choice. It's time... to save the world."

Using the power of Chaos, Vincent flew towards Omega in high speed, as Cloud and the others cheered, "YEAH!" and pushing through the forced power of Omega, Vincent bursted right into the WEAPON's chest, where the final battle would take place, and now Cloud and everyone else would have to wait.

* * *

It was about an hour later, that Vincent came back out, and Omega was suddenly becoming crystalized, before the crystal coating turned into stone. Everything seemed silent for a moment, but things got worse. Omega then suddely grew out massive giant wide wings, and as the wings began to lift the mighty WEAPON up, they caused massive gusts of winds to happen, nearly knocking everyone down.

"Please don't tell me Omega's leaving!?" Rafe cried out.

"But that would mean..." Veld trailled off, unable to finish his sentence.

Reno then shouted into the sky, "VINCENT YOU IDIOT! DON'T GIVE UP DAMN IT!"

Even though he couldn't hear Reno, Vincent soared up in high speed before eventually hovering above the coming Omega. The Protomateria glows brighter, as does the rest of his body, and knowing what to do, even if it costs him his life, Vincent lets out Chaos's roar and plummets down right into Omega.

As the two collided, there was a massive white explosion, nearly blinding everyone down below, as they covered their eyes quickly and braced themselves for their bitter end, but it never came.

Looking up and unshielding their eyes, Cloud and everyone else in Midgar who had survived this, could only stare in awe as they could see the starry sky once again, before the next thing they knew, the Lifestream energy that Omega gathered began to decend like snow flakes. They were reminded when the Planet used the Lifestream to destroy Meteor a year ago.

Having a flash of deja vu, Reno walked ahead of the others before stopping, staring up at the falling Lifestream. This was the second time he's witnessed something like this and had survived to remember it. He, his friends, his boss, his former enemies, and everyone in the world, were saved from another calamity.

Something was wrong, though. Reno then noticed three lone red particles floating down at the same descend as the Lifestream, and somehow he half-knew what this meant, though he didn't want to believe it.

"Vincent?" he asked, and little did he know, Yuffie was in the same state as Reno himself was, asking the same thing.

Vincent Valentine was missing.

* * *

**Tashasaurous: Now the Epilogue is up next, so stay in touch for that and don't go away! Please review before leaving.**

**Cloud: And she would like to thank you all for reading her story and sticking with her this far.**

**Reno: In fact, she appreciates it so much that she wants to tell you something.**

**Tashsaurous: For in case some of you don't already know, Tifa's in the new Final Fantasy VII G-Bike game which is coming out in Japan this year, and as usual, the game looks fun as hell! Look it up online and you'll see what I mean! See you at the Epilogue!**


	14. Epilogue Finally Over, or is it?

**Where Are They?**

**Author's Note: This is it! This is the Epilogue!**

**Reno: What!? Already?**

**Cloud: I'm sure we'll come back eventually.**

**Vincent: Sorry that I vanished last time. I was visiting Lucrecia.**

**Genesis: And I was having a brief visit to the TGS for the new G-Bike game.**

**Tashasaurous: That's a surprise. Maybe your sudden appearence will give Square Enix a flash-back and get them to complete the Compilation. Anywho, let's read this last chapter, and as usual, I don't own Final Fantasy VII.**

* * *

Epilogue: Finally Over...Or is it?

Having noticed that Vincent was missing after Omega's demise, Cloud and the others wasted no time in trying to locate their friend who was the hero of the world this time. With the power of Chaos, Vincent Valentine had saved them from the biggest calamity in history. Even the Turks searched all over Midgar to find the missing Ex-Turk, hoping that he was still alive.

Shelke helped out in trying to find Vincent, though she somehow felt that he wouldn't be here, though at the same time, she also believed that he wasn't dead. At least, she hoped he wasn't. She remembered Shalua's last request that he was look after her.

Eventually, everyone met up near the ShinRa building, which, surprisingly, had returned to it's ruined state before Omega appeared, which was a little bit creepy, but nobody was paying attention to that. Their top priority was to find Vincent.

"Did you find anything?" Reeve asked, only to rechieve several 'no' as an answer.

Yuffie, who had been searching more wildly than the others, tried her best not to think about the possible scenario of what happened to Vincent. She didn't want to think that seeing Vincent as Chaos was the very last time she would ever see him.

Then, the last member of the group approached; it was Cissnei, who seemed to be trying not to cry, and this made the others fear for the worst.

"Cissnei, what's wrong?" Freya asked worriedly.

The former youngest member of the Turks only held out her hands, and everyone gasped at the item in her palms. The familiar keychain of Cerberus which used to hang on Vincent's gun everywhere he went. There was no trace of Vincent, yet his keychain remained, and none of them wanted to believe what really happened to the man who saved them all from Omega's descend.

Nobody spoke, as they lowered their heads in heavy sorrow. Yuffie ended up throwing herself into Tifa's arms and sobbed, while the older woman held her gently and silently shed tears herself.

Cloud shut his eyes to prevent his own tears from falling. This couldn't be happening, not again-not to Vincent. Just then a flash-back appeared in his mind, and he remembered, that when he confronted Yazoo and Loz after Kadaj's death, all three of them died in the blast, and Cloud even remembered floating in the white light of the Lifestream, Aerith and Zack being there, and they sent him back into the Church.

Remembering this somehow gave Cloud a bit of hope. If Cloud could surivive and return to life, and Sephiroth had come back three times, then so can Vincent.

"Vincent's still alive." Cloud spoke up, opening his eyes again, and held new determination, causing everyone else to look at him.

"What are you talking about, Chocobo head?" Reno asked, a bit skeptically.

Cloud looked at him and said, "He wouldn't go down that easily, and I think the world would bring him back. He saved all of us, and even if he isn't in Midgar, he could be somewhere else."

"Are you saying that Vincent Valentine had regenerated somewhere else in the world, Cloud Strife?" Shelke asked as she approached, a little bit of hope in her voice for the first time in ten years.

"That's what I'm hoping." Cloud replied. "I mean, come on, he was always different from the rest of us."

Even Rufus agreed, "I may not know Mr. Valentine much, but he doesn't seem the type to simply just die."

"So, Cloud. You gonna go and find him?" Reno asked.

Cloud nodded, "I know he's out there somewhere. I'll look everywhere if I have to, and I'll keep in touch for anything."

"Don't you go off and disappear again too." Tifa said firmly, once she and Yuffie realised that Cloud was right.

"Don't worry, I won't." Cloud replied. "First we'll fix things up here before I head out."

Reeve approached Cloud and said, "In the meantime, would you and Tifa look after Shelke? She has nowhere else to stay." much to Shelke's surprise.

Everyone looked at the young woman who was stuck in a body of her nine-year old self, probably for the rest of her life, but then again, Vincent was stuck in his 27 year old body and he was 60 years old. Besides, Shalua was gone as well, as Reno and Rude had reported earlier, so, Shelke was on her own now, and since Deepground was finished, as Reeve said, she had nowhere else to go. Which left only one optain, and Cloud and Tifa would never refuse.

"Sure, we'll look after her." Cloud eventually replied.

* * *

'Where am I?' were Vincent's first thoughts since he, as Chaos, stopped Omega. The last thing he remembered was hitting it head first with all of the power of both Chaos and the Protomateria. After that, everything was blank and white. Back in his human self, Vincent was floating into a sea of white light.

Was he finally dead? Did he return to the Planet along with Omega and Chaos? Whatever it was, Vincent felt relaxed. He did what he could and had saved his friends and everyone else and the world. Shelke, and Lucrecia in spirit, along with Cloud and everyone else had helped him. Vincent owed them alot. He recalled the vision of Lucrecia speaking to him, and even though she didn't say it, he knew that she loved him, and still does. The only reason why she chose Hojo was because she had to hide her guilt, but she also made herself and Sephiroth prisoners. Vincent didn't blame her.

And now, after his adventure to stop Deepground, and that Lucrecia was happy that he survived and would want him to continue on, Vincent finally accepted it, and that he had to move forward. He wasn't alone; never was. He still deeply loved Lucrecia, but he had to move on, and no longer dwell into the past.

Just like Cloud had done a year ago over Aerith and Zack.

Vincent had finally come to forgive himself.

While he was drifting in and out of unconsciousness, he felt a smooth and soft hand gently being placed onto the right side of his face, and while he knew it wasn't his mother, the touch somehow felt familiar.

Half opening his crimson eyes, Vincent saw the familiar young woman who had died in the hands of Sephiroth, smiling at him.

"Aerith...?" he muttered softly and tiredly.

Aerith nodded, "_You did it, Vincent. I knew you could do it._" before saying, "_You don't have a place here yet, though. Cloud and the others are waiting for you._"

'That's right...Knowing Cloud, he'll come looking for me.' Vincent thought.

"_Vincent_." another familiar voice, this time male, about a bit younger than Vincent's current age, spoke.

It couldn't be. Could it? Vincent shifted his eyes a little to look behind Aerith, and to his shock and surprise, was the very man he hasn't seen in years, the one whom died after saving Lucrecia's life.

His father, and for the first time, Grimoire was smiling at him.

"...Father?" Vincent asked.

Grimoire nodded, "_You haven't changed a bit, Vincent, other than the outfit. It suits you._"

Vincent couldn't help but chuckle a little at his father's comments. Grimoire always suggested that red suited Vincent ever since the latter was a young child.

"_Vincent...I know that I...should've told you about my experiments, and that Lucrecia was my assistant, and I am deeply sorry. You held more positive paths ahead of you, despite what happened, and you have more friends than I ever had_." Grimoire continued.

"I never blamed you or Lucrecia." Vincent pointed out. "I just...didn't know. But that's all in the past, now. It's thanks to Cloud and the others," he paused and glanced at Aerith while continuing, "And especially Aerith that taught me I had to move ahead."

This made the older Valentine smile and nod. "_You had me worried for 30 years, but I have to admit, you were alright. You and your friends had saved the world so many times, and you had saved all of us from Hojo and Omega. I am very proud of you, my son_."

While Vincent knew he was way too old for these kind of compliments, he had to admit that maybe he was still like a lost child who had found a new family. In the end, he was glad to have a family, in the living world, the Lifestream and in his heart. "Thank you, father." Vincent replied.

He closed his eyes, and he felt himself falling, knowing that Aerith and Grimoire were sending him back to the living world through the Lifestream, just as Aerith and Zack did for Cloud, and Vincent realised that this is how Cloud came back to life a year ago.

When he awoke, Vincent found himself on the shores of the valley uninhabited by humans by the river, and he quickly realised he was sent back via Lifestream and to the place where Lucrecia's cave was. Smiling, Vincent stood up from the river and walked towards the cave. Before he could go and reuight with his friends, he had something else to do.

* * *

_**One week later...**_

Everything was finally back to normal. The Lifestream had returned and flowed normally again, everyone moved back to their homes and began to rebuilt them, the former Turks had returned to their normal lives; Cissnei went back to Gongaga to live with Zack's parents, Rosalind had moved to Junon to live life there, Legend went back to Costa Del Sol to catch up on his dates with the lovely ladies, Rafe, Fayte and Haruto went to Wutai to help Lord Godo in repairs, Freya and Rod had gone back to Mideel, where the two of them had began a new relationship, and Veld had returned to Kalm to help in repairs with the aid of his daugther Felicia who was due to give birth to her first child; Rufus, Tseng, Reno, Rude and Elena had returned to Healen Lodge to continue in helping in rebuilding the world, Reeve and WRO had began to rebuilt their HQ, Cid had gone back to Rocket Town, Barret went back to Corel, Marlene and Denzel had returned to Edge along with Tifa and Yuffie, and Shelke was now living with them. Nanaki was visiting them.

Within the Lifestream, Zack and his mentor Angeal had taken care of Hojo who was punished and banished by the Goddess who was also keeping an eye on Sephiroth who was sleeping after his second death, and his remanents were learning to behave like normal people and were actually getting along with the other souls within the Lifestream, and Aerith was helping out as well.

As for Cloud, he continued his search for Vincent, and just recently called Tifa that he hasn't found anything yet. He looked in Kalm, Junon, Bone Village, even the Forgotten City, but so far, no luck. He knew that Vincent wouldn't be anywhere near Nibelhiem, Costa Del Sol was too hot and tropical, Icicle town was too cold, and the Gold Saucer was too crowded.

Cloud was running out of ideas. He was now resting near the stairs that lead up to Cosmo Canyon, and was staring at the keychain that belonged to Vincent, trying to think of the one place the ex-Turk would be. Cloud still refused to accept that his friend was dead.

"Still no clue on where vampire-boy is?" a familair cocky voice asked.

When Cloud looked, he couldn't help but sigh in annoyance. Reno and Rude were just approaching him from the stairs from Cosmo Canyon, and as usual, Cloud didn't hear them coming until the last second.

"What are you and Rude doing here, Reno?" Cloud asked.

Reno shrugged with his trademark grin, saying, "Just taking a day off. I've been here before with Freya, and well, ya' know how your friend Red XIII was captured, but did he tell you about the Rite thing that happens every 50 years, right?"

"He did mention about it, and it took place 4 years ago." Cloud nodded.

"To tell the truth, I was there when the thing happened, before we captured him." Reno scratched the back of his head, "It was kinda cool, actually. Kinda like a chance of a lifetime thing."

"Did you find Valentine yet?" Rude asked.

Cloud shook his head, "Not yet, but I'm not giving up."

"Then why don'tcha look at the place where he would like to go?" Reno suggested, causing the two other men to glance at him questionly. He shrugged and said, "People go to places where their friends, families or loved ones are last seen or buried in peace. Some people at least, and visit the dead for some comfortable memories."

Now that Reno mentioned it, even Vincent would go to places to make himself comfortable. He would often visit the Forgotten City to visit Aerith, and Cloud had spend weeks inside the church. The only place that was visited once was...Cloud's eyes widened as he almost wanted to smack himself for not realising this sooner.

"I know where Vincent is." Cloud said, immediately going towards his bike to continue his journey, making Reno and Rude to glance at each other, surprised that the blonde-haired man had found the answer without even asking anyone.

He paused, and then looked back at the Turks, and said, "Thanks."

"For what?" asked Reno.

"For helping us out, and...give my thanks to Rufus, Tseng and Elena, and the other Turks." Cloud explained.

Reno felt awkward, while Rude cleared his throat. Both of them weren't used to being thanked by a former enemy. They then realised that Cloud and his friends were never truly enemies; just rivals who wanted the best for the world. Now even that rivally was over, and they were people who could catch up sometimes.

Eventually, Reno smiled and replied, "No problem, Cloud. You take care of yourself and your buddies, alright?"

"Likewise to you guys." Cloud added, before putting on his driving goggles and drove off towards his next destination.

The Turks watched him leave, and then Reno and Rude looked up at the sky which was another sunny day, looking forward for the days to come. They still had each other and their friends, just as Cloud still had his friends.

* * *

Few days later, Cloud brought Tifa and Shelke to the area near Lucrecia's cave, and had sent Shelke up to being Vincent down, while he and Tifa waited paitently.

"For all the places for Vincent to be, I think it took you long enough to figure this out." Tifa thought.

Cloud smiled sheepishly, and admitted, "I guess I took Reno's advice the other day."

The black haired woman shook her head while placing her hands on her hips, with a smile though. "Sometimes you're unbelievable, Cloud." she said.

The blonde-haired man then remembered his promise, one last promise he had to fufill, and so he smlied at Tifa, and said, "You wanna know something else that's unbelievable?"

He approached her, and whispered something in her ear. Tifa blinked in surprise, then she smiled happily, and as she and Cloud then stared at each other's eyes, their lips met and they were giving each other another passionate kiss, one that shield their destiny together forever.

Their love for each other was finally fufilled, and unknown to them, as Vincent and Shelke were approaching, they couldn't help but smile at their friends' moment, and decided to walk away to give Cloud and Tifa some more time to themselves.

Not that they minded.

The Jenova War was finally over, and the world was truly at peace at last, and Cloud, his friends, his former enemies who were becoming more friends, and everyone else in the world and within the Lifestream will finally live out normal and happy lives.

* * *

Or so they hoped.

Genesis, former SOLDIER 1st Class and the very cause of everything that truly began, his black wing extended, and holding the unconscious Weiss in his arms, was standing on top of the ruined ShinRa building in Midgar the full moon at night, ready to begin his new mission.

"Infinate in mystery, is the gift of the Goddess. We seek it thus and take to the Sky. Ripples form on the Water's surface. The wandering soul knows no rest." he quoted LOVELESS once again.

The red-oranged-haired man, his leather red coat slightly covered in black feathers, chuckled. "There is so much to do, yet so little time. We shall take our time, my brother." he then took off again once more, and this would mean...

It was about to truly begin. When though? That is the question many so wanted to be answered. And yet...time was running out.

_THE END...and Yet, the story may or may not continue..._

* * *

**Tashasaurous: Well...that's the end of my first multi-chapter story, and I still have three more to complete. I want to thank the viewers for reading this story, and I also want to thank fellow authors CopperMoon, findthetiger129, and Gunromance for the names of the BC Turks which are so awesome, and I want to thank Square Enix for making the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII possible and I hope that the company will continue the series before 2017.**

**Cloud: She will see you all again in her other stories.**

**Reno: Until next time, if you want to read more of her stories, you know what to do.**

**Vincent: And if not, go to her link and always support her.**

**Genesis: Even though I only made a small appearence, even I'm thankful to her.**

**Tashasaurous: This wasn't an easy story to do, but I reached my goal to finish this story before the end of the year. I will try harder for my other stories. Until then, farewell everyone, and my the Lifestream guide you.**

**THE END.**


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